A history of Louisiana

i nirf-nm- -i ■■ •■

EDITION DE LUXE

There have been printed of this Edition of

A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

One Thousand Copies

Numbered 1 to 1000

no._ ££2

A HISTORY OF
LOUISIANA

Volume I

I \ L-> »- '

F-14-lW

A HISTORY OF
LOUISIANA

BY

ALCEE FORTIER, Litt.D.

PROFESSOR OB" ROMANCE LANGUAGES IN TULANE tTNIVERSITT

OP LOUISIANA, PRESIDENT OF THE LOUISIANA

HISTORICAL SOCIETY

*

IN FOUR VOLUMES

¥

VOLUME I

EARLY EXPLORERS AND THE
DOMINATION OF THE FRENCH

1512-1768

GOUPIL & CO., OF PARIS

ART PUBLISHERS

MANZI, JOYANT k CO., SUCCESSORS
170 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

1904

iY

Copyright, 1903, by
Manzi, Joyavt & Co.

All rights reserved

THE DE VINNE PRESS

TO MY FRIEND

HENRY VIGNAUD

DIPLOMAT AND HISTORIAN

THE DISTINGUISHED LOUISIANIAN WHO HAS BEEN AN

HONOR TO HIS NATIVE STATE AND HAS ALWAYS

LOVED HER AND HIS COUNTRYMEN

THIS HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

CONTENTS

Chapter I. The Spanish Explorers. Ponce de Leon.
Hernando de Soto.

The Spanish explorers not successful within the limits of the PAOE
present United States — Ponce de Leon discovers Florida —
Pineda is said to have discovered the Mississippi — Vasquez
de Ayllon in Florida — Pamphilo de Narvaez — Cabeza and
the Mississippi — De Soto's equipment — Spirit of his fol-
lowers — Landing of De Soto — His treatment of the natives
— The massacre of Vitachuco's warriors — Search for gold —
The female cacique — Tuscaluza — Disaster at Mauvila — In
the country of the Chickasaws — Discovery of the Mississippi
— Death of De Soto — Luis de Moscoso 3

Chapter II. The French Explorers. Marquette and
Joliet. Hennepin. La Salle.

Spirit of the French explorers — The St. Lawrence — Acadia
— Quebec — The missionaries — Montreal — La Salle— Discov-
ery of the Ohio — Marquette — Joliet — The Mississippi — Re-
turn of the explorers — Death of Marquette — La Salle's plans
— Frontenac — Tonty — Hennepin — The Griffin — Fort Creve-
coeur — Hennepin's expedition — Description of the Missis-
sippi— Du Lhut — "Louis," Indian name for "sun," accord-
ing to Hennepin — First mention of the name " Louisiane " —
Gilmary Shea's opinion of Hennepin — La Salle at Fort
Frontenac — The Iroquois and the Illinois — La Salle enters
the Mississippi — The mouth of the Mississippi — Official ac-
count of taking possession — Father Membre's description of
the Mississippi — Fort St. Louis of the Illinois — La Salle
authorized to form a settlement — Fort St. Louis of Texas —
Murder of La Salle — Destruction of La Salle's settlement . 11

Chapter III. The Settlement of Louisiana. Iber-
ville, Sauvole, and Bienville.

The condition of France from 1687 to the treaty of Ryswick
— Maurepas chooses Iberville for the Louisiana expedition —

viii CONTENTS

FAQS

The sons of Charles Le Moyne — Names of Le Moyne's chil-
dren — Joutel's "Relation" — Father Anastase Douay — Iber-
ville arrives at Ship Island in February, 1699 — Reception of
Iberville by the Indians — The first fort at Biloxi — Iberville
finds the mouth of the Mississippi — Exploration of the river
— Origin of name Baton Rouge — Pointe Coupee — Tonty's
letter — Iberville starts to return to his ships — Iberville River,
Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, Bay St. Louis — Success
of Iberville's expedition — Sauvole the first commandant or
governor of Louisiana — Visit of Bayagoula chiefs and their
squaws — The " English Turn " — Return of Iberville — Fort
on the Mississippi — Fort Rosalie — Le Sueur's "blue and
green earth" — Bienville's journey to the northwest — Death
of Sauvole — Bienville in command — Iberville's last voyage to
Louisiana — War of the Spanish Succession — The seat of the
colony removed from Biloxi — Fort Louis de la Mobile — Com-
missary de La Salle — Curate de la Vente — Death of Iberville 30

Chapter IV. The Struggle for Existence. The
Founding of New Orleans.

Hardships of the colonists — Dealings with the Indians —
Death of Tonty— Census of 1704— Census of 1706— De
Muys — Diron d'Artaguette — D'Artaguette and Bienville ad-
vocate an establishment on the Mississippi — Penicaut's life
with the Indians — Slow progress of Louisiana — Grant to
Crozat — Governor Lamothe Cadillac — Letters patent to Cro-
zat — Administration of Lamothe Cadillac — Customs of the
Natchez Indians — Bienville's punishment of the Natchez
chiefs — Governor de l'Epinay — Intendant Hubert — Early
settlements — Fort Conde of Mobile — Dubreuil — Young
D'Artaguette — The Western Company — John Law — Ab-
stract of the charter of the Western Company — Foundation
of New Orleans in February, 1718 — New Biloxi — The Su-
perior Council in 1719 — War with Spain — Capture of Pen-
sacola — Expeditions of Dutisne and of La Harpe — The
German Coast — Pauger's report about the mouth of the
Mississippi — New Orleans becomes the capital — La Tour's
report — The hurricane of 1723 — Commandants of posts —
Names of districts — Father Charlevoix's letter — Description
of Louisiana by Le Page du Pratz — Le Page's arrival in the
colony — His concessions near New Orleans — The calumet
dance — Departure for the Natchez country — Settlement near
Fort Rosalie — Limits of Louisiana according to Le Page —

CONTENTS ix

PAOB

Climate — The river St. Louis — Le Page goes to New Biloxi
— Explorations in the interior— Tribute to St. Denis — Boats
of the natives — List of the Indian tribes — Le Page meets
Father Charlevoix — His departure in 173-1 50

Chapter V. Abstracts of the most important Royal
Orders, Regulations, and Edicts concerning Loui-
siana, from 1719 to 1729.

Forbids governors, etc., to possess plantations — Forbids vaga-
bonds and criminals to be sent to Louisiana — About foreign
commerce — About carrying swords — About firing cannon in
harbors of colonies — About redemptioners — About sailors
deserting — About games of chance — Edict concerning negro
slaves, known as the " Black Code " — About killing of cattle
— About opening letters — About landing slaves — About the
punishment of deserters — About military crimes and offenses

— About exclusion of foreign commerce — Regulations for
hospitals 83

Chapter VI. Colonization.

New Orleans in its beginning — War with the Natchez — Bien-
ville's recall to France — His services — Early censuses —
Notice of Dubreuil — Governor Perier — The Ursulines — New
Orleans as seen by Sister Madeleine Hachard — The first resi-
dence of the Ursulines — The convent — The ecclesiastical
jurisdictions — The Capuchins and the Jesuits — The cur-
rency—Progress of the colony — The early population of
Louisiana — Massacre by the Natchez — The Yazoos join the
Natchez — The Choctaws remain faithful to the French —
Loubois attacks the Natchez — The Natchez routed by St.
Denis — The Tunicas — Plot of the negroes — Governor Perier
attacks the Natchez — The last stand of the Natchez — Ruin
of the Natchez 98

Chapter VII. Bienville's Wars with the Chickasaws.
Vaudreuil, the Grand Marquis. The Seven
Years' War.

Character of Governor Perier — List of officers from 1725 to
1730 — Surrender of the charter of the Company of the Indies

— Return of Bienville — War with the Chickasaws — Bien-

CONTENTS

PAGH

villc's retreat — Death of young D'Artaguette — Names of the
principal officers — Bienville's narrative — Second expedition
against the Chickasaws — Failure of the expedition — Celoron
attacks the Indians — Bienville asks to be relieved — Founda-
tion of the hospital — Hurricanes in 1740 — Request for the
establishment of a college of the Jesuits — Brothers of the
Christian schools — Bienville's departure from the colony —
The Marquis de Vaudreuil — Hostilities with the Indians —
Ordinances of Vaudreuil and Salmon — Vaudreuil's activity —
His police regulations — Vaudreuil becomes Governor of Can-
ada — Introduction of the sugar-cane — The last girls sent at
the King's expense — Washington at Great Meadows and at
Fort Necessity — Bossu's account of the Creoles — Bossu's
description of New Orleans — Governor Kerlerec — The
tragedy at Cat Island — Sad fate of Beaudreau — Unwise ad-
ministration of France and of Louisiana — Marigny de Man-
deville — Adventures of Belle-Isle — Defeat of the French in
America 11 6

Chapter VIII. The Cession of Louisiana to Spain.
The Revolution of 1768.

Choiseul— The treaty of Fontainebleau in 1762— The treaty
of Paris in 1763 — Names of officials and officers in 1763 —
Damaging report against Kerlerec — Expulsion of the Jesuits
— West Florida — The Indians regret the French — Transfer
of Mobile to the British — The Indians leave the British —
Little Manchac — First arrival of the Acadians — Establish-
ment of a printing-press — Letter of Louis XV announcing
the cession to Spain — Charles III of Spain — Nyon de Villiers
abandons Fort Chartres — Death of D'Abbadie— Aubry —
Discontent of the colonists — Arrivals of Acadians — Sketch
of the expulsion of the Acadians by the British — Names of
officers at end of French domination — Don Antonio de Ulloa
— Ulloa's unwise ordinance of September 6, 1766 — Petition
of the merchants of New Orleans — Ulloa's haughtiness and
lack of tact — Intense cold in 1768 — Aubry's position — The
Revolution of 1768— The Council adopts Lafreniere's con-
clusions — Foucault's opinion — Aubry's protest — Ulloa's de-
parture — Delegates sent to France — Letters to Praslin and
to the King— Address of the Council— Investigation about
"vexations" committed by Ulloa— Letter of the inhabitants
to Praslin— Ulloa's council— Life and works of Ulloa —

CONTENTS xi

PAQH

Baudry des Loziere's opinion of Lafreniere — Lafreniere's
chief associates — Noble sentiments of the Louisianians — Ex-
pulsion of the Spanish frigate 141

Chapter IX. Memorial of the Planters and Mer-
chants OF L0UISL\NA ON THE EVENT OF OCTOBER 29,

1768.

Necessity of the Revolution — Love for the King of France —
Promises of Louis XV in the name of the King of Spain —
Arrival of Ulloa — His reception by the people — Important
trades restricted by Ulloa — No outlet for products of Loui-
siana in Spain — Louisiana to be made a rampart to Mexico —
No advantage in being allowed to go to foreign countries
when there is no market for goods in Spain — Ulloa introduces
the Spanish law in spite of promise of Louis XV — Interdic-
tion of the passes of the Mississippi — Accidents to vessels
through Ulloa's order of interdiction — Ulloa closes brickyards
— Ulloa prohibits the introduction of negroes — Ulloa treats
respectful representations as seditious — Ulloa does not show
his powers— Ulloa treats New Orleans as a conquered city —
Ulloa maltreats the Germans and the Acadians — Ulloa's con-
tempt for the ecclesiastical laws — Frenchmen have often
shaken off a foreign yoke without consent of the government
— The Spanish possessions better protected if Louisiana re-
mains French — The loss of Canada renders Louisiana very
useful to France — Close relations with merchants of France —
Obstacle to the cession is love for the King of France — The
flag of Spain was not insulted — Prayer to the King to take
back the colony — The Memorial a noble paper 177

Chapter X. O'Reilly in Louisiana. The Martyrs of
the Revolution of 1768.

Ulloa's account of the Revolution of 1768 — True motive of
the opposition to Ulloa — Return of Lesassier — The repub-
lican spirit in the colony — General O'Reilly's arrival —
O'Reilly takes possession— O'Reilly asks of Aubry the names
of the conspirators — Aubry acts as informer — Aubry's ac-
count of Lafreniere's doings — Aubry's account of the Revo-
lution — Aubry names the conspirators — His contemptible let-
ter — Arrest of the chiefs of the Revolution — Death of Villere
— Bossu's account of Villere's death— Character of Villere —

xii CONTENTS

PAOE

O'Reilly's proclamation — O'Reilly's address to the con-
spirators — The property of the prisoners confiscated — The
inhabitants take the oath of allegiance — Aubry's report to the
French minister — His tragic death — Testimony against Fou-
cault — He is released — Act of accusation against the prison-
ers — Part taken in the conspiracy by each of the prisoners —
Sentence — The execution— Burning of the " Memorial of the
Planters and Merchants "■ — No excuse for O'Reilly's cruelty
— O'Reilly went beyond his instructions — Release of Petit
and other prisoners from Morro Castle — Bienville de Noyan
at Santo Domingo— End of the drama 206

Chapter XI. Old Papers of Colonial Times.

Interest of the papers of colonial times — Papers signed by
Lafreniere and Foucault — A lawsuit and a petition in 1769 —
Hunting cattle on the Gentilly coast — Establishment of the
cabildo — The governor and the commandants — The alcaldes
and the escribano — Case of the slave Bautista — Military life
in 1795 — Petition from a lady in 1768 — Louison, the Indian,
freed from slavery — Contract with the Acadians — Father
Dagobert's induction into office — A petition from the inhabi-
tants of Cabaha-noce — Suit against the memory of a sup-
posed self-homicide — Petition in 1769 about a "carriage"
(a pirogue) 231

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAOH

La Salle Takes Possession of Louisiana in the Name of
King Louis XIV, April 9, 1682. Hand-finished Water-color
Facsimile, reproduced from an original painting by T. de
Thulstrup Frontispiece

Robert Cavelier de la Salle, 1643-1687, the first explorer
of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. From a painting
by Leon Mayer, 1865, belonging to Mine. Suchet de la Ques-
nerie. This painting was executed from the portrait of
La Salle published in " Memoires ct Documents pour ser-
vir a l'Histoire des Origines Franchises des Pays d'Outre-
Mer," by Pierre Margry, and after the two only authentic
iconographic documents which exist, viz., the full-face me-
dallion engraving below the portrait to the left, belonging
to M. Edouard Pelay of Rouen, and the profile drawing to
the right, belonging to the Public Library at Rouen. The
arms of La Salle are reproduced from d'Hozier's work on
heraldry at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 14

Map of Louisiana, reproduced from Father Louis Hennepin's
" Description de la Louisiane, nouvellement decouverte au
Sud-ouest de la Nouvelle France," first edition, 1683. This
is the first map in which the name of " La Louisiane " ap-
pears. The Mississippi was then known as the river Colbert,
and its course is shown only to the " Mission des Recollets." 28

Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville, 1 661— 1706, the founder of
Louisiana. From a contemporary painting in the collection
of the late M. Pierre Margry, and now belonging to M.
Charles Chadenat, Paris 48

Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715, after whom Loui-
siana was named. From a painting by Hyaeinthe Rigaud in
the Louvre Museum, Paris 64

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

John Law of Lauriston, 1671-1729, founder of the Com-
pany of the West, sometimes called the " Mississippi Bub-
ble." From a painting by Alexis Simeon Belle in the
National Portrait Gallery, London 80

Philippe II, Due d'Orleans, Regent of France, 1674-1723,
after whom the city of New Orleans was named. From a
painting by Jean-Baptiste Santerre at the Versailles Mu-
seum 100

Jean-Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville II, 1680-1768,
three times Governor of Louisiana. From a contemporary
painting in the collection of the late M. Pierre Margry, and
now belonging to M. Charles Chadenat, Paris 120

Pierre Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, 1678-1760, surnamed
the " Grand Marquis," Governor of Louisiana. From a
painting of the XVIII-century French school (artist un-
known), formerly in possession of the Comtesse de Clermont-
Tonnerre 136

Louis Billouart, Chevalier de Kerlerec, 1704-1770, sur-
named by the Indians " The Father of the Choctaws," Gov-
ernor of Louisiana. From a contemporary portrait in pas-
tel (artist unknown) belonging to the Vicomte de Villiers du
Terrage, one of his lineal descendants 154

Etienne-Francois, Due de Choiseul-Stainville, 1719-1785,
the able minister of Louis XV, who signed the treaty of
Fontainebleau, November 3, 1762. From a painting by Carle
Van Loo, belonging to M. Wildenstein, Paris 170

Louis XV, King of France, 1710-1774, who ceded Louisiana
to Spain by the treaty of Fontainebleau, November 3, 1762 204

Don Antonio de Ulloa, 1716-1795, first Spanish governor
of Louisiana. From a contemporary painting (artist un-
known) in the Naval Museum, Madrid 234'

PREFACE

A native of Louisiana and a member of a family which
established itself in New Orleans shortly after the foun-
dation of that city in 1718, the author of this book may
be permitted to say that he has written it con amore— avec
amour, as he prefers to say in the language of his vener-
ated ancestors. It teas indeed a labor of love to relate the
history of Louisiana, from the discovery of the great
Mississippi by the knightly De Soto to our own times.
How pleasant it was to accompany La Salle down the
mighty river to the Gulf of Mexico, to witness the heroic
efforts of Iberville and Bienville to colonize Louisiana,
to see the growth of New Orleans and be introduced to
the brave men and gentle women who dwelt, in the eigh-
teenth century, in the little town which they already con-
sidered delightful and which they compared with pride
to the Paris of Louis XV! How ennobling the Revolu-
tion of 1768, when a handful of men rose against the
oppresssion of a powerful foreign government and
thought of establishing a republic on the banks of the
Mississippi! How interesting the campaigns of Bernardo
de Galvez against the British, which have given the Louisi-
anians of to-day the right of belonging to the Society of
the Sons of the American Revolution!

The colonial history of French and of Spanish Louisi-

xvi PREFACE

ana is highly instructive and interesting, but no less so is
the history of American Louisiana. On December 20,
1803, Laussat transferred the province to the United
States, and the Louisianians became, from that time, true
Americans. Under the leadership of Jackson, they helped
to repel the British from American soil, and from 1815
to 1861, aided by worthy citizens from other parts of the
Union, they strove earnestly to develop the ■wonderful
resources of their State. When the Civil War broke out
the men of Louisiana fought bravely for rights which they
held sacred, and the women displayed a patriotism, a
courage, fully equal to that of the men. More apparent
still was that fortitude during the terrible years which
followed the war, until the people regained, in 1877, the
right of self-government, and made use of it to enjoy
prosperity, liberty, and happiness.

It is natural that the author of this book should take
pride in relating the history of the events which took place
on the soil of Louisiana for the last two hundred years.
In nearly all of these events men of his name or of his
blood took part. In spite of this personal interest in the
history of Louisiana, the author has striven earnestly and
honestly to be impartial and just in his narrative of facts
and in his judgment of men. However, he has not re-
frained from expressing indignation at unworthy deeds
and praise for noble actions. In his opinion, impartiality
does not preclude interest in events and warmth in relating
them. History is not a mere chronicle of facts. It deals
with the inner life of men, with their customs and man-
ners, as well as with their political and warlike deeds. An

PREFACE xvii

attempt has therefore been made in this work to depict
both the inner and the outward life of the people of Louisi-
ana, and for that purpose they have often been allowed
to express their feelings in their own words. The author
has endeavored to revive the men and women of the past,
to show them with their hearts throbbing with warm blood,
with all the impulses of humanity. He knows very well
that he has not succeeded in this arduous task, but he as-
serts again that he has striven to do full justice to all the
persons whose names he has mentioned. There is malice
against none, if there is sometimes severity.

It is impossible to write the History of Louisiana with-
out consulting the works of Francois Xavicr Martin and
Charles Gayarre, and grateful acknowledgment is made
of the help derived from these distinguished historians. It
icas the privilege of the author to have enjoyed the friend-
ship of Mr. Gayarre and to have been encouraged by him
in his work. The histories of Martin and of Gayarre
were very useful guides, but they did not serve as a
foundation for this book. The author used as a basis for
it a large number of books by contemporaries, news-
papers from the year 1794, and manuscript documents.
The latter are principally to be found in the archives of
the Louisiana Historical Society. They are, for the
French Domination: Magne's "Notes et Documents," a
large volume of 1106 pages, bought in May, 1845, front
the compiler by the State of Louisiana; Pierre Margry's
" Documents sur la Louisiane," a compilation made by
Margry at the request and at the expense of Mr. John
Perkins, who presented it to the Louisiana Historical So-

xviii PREFACE

cicty: the three volumes or parts bear the dates respectively
of May, September, and December, 1849. There are also
a volume of French manuscripts (Mississippi Valley) , one
of official French orders, etc., and many boxes containing
legal papers— petitions, marriage contracts, etc., from
1719 to 1803. For the Spanish Domination the principal
documents are four volumes of Spanish manuscripts, com-
piled from the archives in Spain by the distinguished
writer Pascual de Gayangos, in 1847, for the State of
Louisiana, through the efforts of Mr. Gayarre. Besides
the above, the author had the very valuable Memoir of
Francisco Bouligny, which gives such a clear account of
the condition of Louisiana in 1776, and which was kindly
placed at his disposal by his cousin, Mrs. Albert Baldwin,
a descendant of Francisco Bouligny.

Many hours were spent among the archives at the Min-
istry of the Colonies in Paris and at the City Hall in New
Orleans, and at the Louisiana State Library and the
Howard Memorial Library. Much useful and hitherto
unpublished information was gathered in those places.

At the end of each volume notes have been placed, where
full acknowledgment has been made of the sources of this
work. Literary honesty should be as complete as business
honesty, and it is just as wrong to rob a man of his literary
work as of his financial work.

The author Irishes to express his sincere thanks to the
kind friends who so generously placed at his disposal their
valuable collections of books and j)o-mphlets relating to
Louisiana history: Messrs. Gaspar Cusachs, Thomas P.

PREFACE xix

Thompson, J. W. Cruzat, William Beer, and Dr. Joseph
Bauer.

The history of Louisiana is intimately connected with
the history of France, of Spain, and of the United States.
On its pages one sees the names of Louis XIV , the labori-
ous and stately monarch; of Louis XV, his despicable suc-
cessor; of the able Charles III and the weak Charles IV
of Spain; of Bonaparte, the wonderful captain and states-
man; of Lafayette, the friend of Washington; of Thomas
Jefferson, the wise President; of Andrew Jackson, the
victorious general; of Jefferson Davis, the President of
the Southern Confederacy; of William McKinley, the
gracious and patriotic President.

Our history is also gloriously connected with that of
England. It is a noble and interesting history; it is that
of a people who bore misfortune with courage and knew
how to recover from it; of a people with an artistic tem-
perament; of a people not perfect because human, but
whose faults one may excuse on account of their gene-
rosity, exalted patriotism, and chivalric sentiments.

The author hopes that the pages of his work will bear
out the truth of what he has stated in this preface. He
does not hope that his readers will be as well pleased with
the text as with the beautiful artistic setting given to it by
the publishers. Let him at least be given the credit of
having labored faithfully to present a true picture of his
beloved Louisiana, once French, once Spanish, but now
American forever.

Alcee Fortier.

New Orleans, September 16, 1903.

A HISTORY OF
LOUISIANA

Volume I

CHAPTER I

The Spanish Explorers

PONCE DE LEON — HERNANDO DE SOTO

The Spanish explorers not successful within the limits of the present United
States— Ponce de Leon discovers Florida— Pineda is said to have discovered
the Mississippi -Vasquez de Ayllon in Florida— Parophilo de Narvaez—
Cabeza and the Mississippi— De Soto's equipment -Spirit of his followers
—Landing of De Soto— His treatment of the natives— The massacre of
Vitachuco's warriors— Search for gold— The female cacique— Tuscaluza —
Disaster at Mauvila— In the country of the Chickasaws— Discovery of
the Mississippi -Death of De Soto— Luis de Moscoso.

FTER Columbus had discovered the

New World for the Crown of Cas-
tile, the Spaniards undertook expe-
ditions across the Atlantic Ocean and
reaped a rich harvest in Peru and
Mexico, where the boldness of Pi-
zarro and of Cortez won for Spain
immense provinces and countless treasures. The Span-
ish explorers, however, were not successful within the
limits of the country that is now the United States, meet-
ing only with defeat and disaster.

In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon, a companion of Colum-
bus in his second expedition, sailed from Porto Rico to
search the island of Bimini, where he thought he should

4 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1512

find the Fountain of Youth. He landed on March 27,
Easter Sunday (Pascua Florida, in Spanish), and gave
to the country he had discovered the pretty name of
Florida. 1 He explored the coast and was received with
hostility hy the Indians. In 1521 he endeavored to con-
quer Florida, and was mortally wounded by the natives.

In 1519 Alvarez de Pineda, who was sent on an explor-
ing expedition by Francisco de Garay, Governor of Ja-
maica, is said to have discovered the Mississippi River,
and named it the Rio del Espiritu Santo. This fact has
been accepted by several modern historians, but Mr. W.
B. Scaife, 2 in 1892, and Mr. Peter J. Hamilton, 3 in 1898,
appear to have proved that the Espiritu Santo was not the
Mississippi, but the Mobile River.

In 1520 Vasquez de Ayllon landed on the coast of
Florida, now South Carolina, a country called Chicora by
the Indians. De Ayllon treacherously carried away sev-
eral Indians, to work in the gold-mines and on the planta-
tions of the Spaniards. In 1525 he made another expedi-
tion; but the Indians lured him into a feeling of safety
and then massacred nearly all the invaders. The per-
fidious De Ayllon himself was probably among the slain.

The misfortunes of Ponce de Leon and of Vasquez de
Ayllon did not deter Pamphilo de Narvaez from endea-
voring to conquer Florida in 1528. The story of his ex-
pedition also is one of disaster. Narvaez perished, and
only five of his followers escaped from the fatal land
discovered by Ponce de Leon. They succeeded in reach-
ing Mexico after ten years of wandering, and one of the
number, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, returned to Spain.

1538] DE SOTO'S EXPEDITION 5

In spite of his sufferings in Florida, Alvar Nunez gave
a glowing description of the wealth of that country. In
his wanderings he must have crossed the Mississippi
River, hut he does not mention that fact.

On hearing the narrative of Alvar Nunez, Hernando
de Soto conceived the project of conquering Florida and
its riches. 4 He had been a follower of Pizarro and one of
the bravest and most chivalric of the conquistadorcs of
Peru. He obtained from Charles V the permission to
conquer Florida, and received the title of Governor and
Captain-General of Cuba and Florida, and in the lat-
ter country he was also to be adelantado, that is to say,
he was to have absolute authority in military and civil
matters.

Many of the noblest and most warlike men in Spain,
soldiers of fortune, and Portuguese cavaliers, were eager
to join De Soto's expedition. The commander chose six
hundred men (some say nine hundred and fifty) from
those who applied to him, and left Spain, on April 6, 1538,
with a fleet of nine vessels. On his arrival in Cuba, De
Soto spent a year in organizing his expedition, and when
he sailed for Florida, on May 18, 1539, nothing was lack-
ing in his equipment. He had artisans, miners, and
chemists to work the gold-mines, chains and fetters and
bloodhounds for the captives, and live stock for his men.
He was himself bold, energetic, and enthusiastic; his fol-
lowers were intrepid, and they were all confident of suc-
cess ; but they carried with them the doom of the enterprise
in the instruments for working the mines and torturing
the captives. Greed for gold, and unrelenting cruelty,

6 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1539

were too often traits of the Spanish conquerors, and their
failures are to be attributed to their vices. We cannot
but admire their fortitude and bravery, but we must con-
demn their insatiable cupidity and their treatment of the
natives. The cruelty of De Soto's predecessors in Florida,
and his own implacable spirit, were to be the greatest hin-
drance to his conquest.

The Spanish fleet reached the bay of Espiritu Santo
(Tampa Bay) on May 30, 1539, and in a few days the
troops were debarked. The men were clad in glittering
armor; most of them were armed with crossbows, swords,
and lances, while eighteen had harquebuses, and there was
one piece of ordnance. The Indians were hostile from
the outset, but were terrified by the firearms and especially
by the war-horses, covered with steel, like the men who
rode them. The first village they met was that of Hirigue,
six miles from the sea, and De Soto tried to conciliate the
Indian chief. The latter, however, remained hostile, and
so did Acuera, farther in the interior. The Indians re-
membered the cruel deeds of De Ayllon and of Narvaez,
and De Soto's conduct was not such as to pacify them.
He captured and put in chains several savages, to serve
as guides, and, on one occasion, he had some of these
guides torn to pieces by bloodhounds, as he suspected
them of treachery.

The Spaniards continued their march toward the north,
and, after a toilsome journey, reached the country of Vi-
tachuco, a cacique who was hostile at first but afterward
appeared to be friendly. Here happened a terrible event.
Vitachuco, wishing to show his warriors to the invaders,

I5M] SEARCH FOR GOLD 7

assembled them all, on a certain day, as if for review. De
Soto also said that he would display his soldiers, and he
made them march fully armed before the Indians. All
at once the Spaniards attacked Vitachuco's warriors and
killed five hundred of them and captured nine hundred.
The latter, soon afterward, revolted against their tyrants
and were all put to death in cold blood. De Soto's excuse
for this dreadful deed was, that if he had not attacked the
Indians they would have massacred his men, and he
had merely anticipated them.

After this the natives were more hostile than ever, and
the Spaniards lost many men in crossing the swamp called
the Great Morass on their way to the Appalachee country.
Here they hoped to find gold, and they established their
winter quarters at the town of Anhayca, from which the
inhabitants had fled. No gold, however, was to be found,
and De Soto sent detachments to explore the country.
One of his lieutenants came to the sea and discovered
a favorable harbor near the village of Aute. The ships
were ordered to go to that place; but as a better harbor
was discovered in the bay of Achusi (now Pensacola),
De Soto ordered his ships to bring supplies from Havana
and to await him in Achusi Bay in the autumn of 1540.
He was desirous of going to the province of Cofachiqui,
where, it was said, gold was in abundance, and he passed
through what is now the State of Georgia. The Indians
were friendly, and supplied the Spaniards with food.

Cofachiqui was ruled by a beautiful female cacique,
who received the strangers with kindness. The latter,
disappointed at not finding gold, plundered the sacred

8 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [15*0

relics of the Indians and took all the jewels they con-
tained. The troops were now anxious to form a settle-
ment, but the governor resolved to continue his march,
and he arrived, about the first of August, at the village
of Coosa in the present State of Alabama. He then
reached the country of Tuscaluza, a powerful chief, tall,
handsome, and ferocious-looking. The cacique was hos-
pitable to the strangers, but De Soto, as was his custom,
got possession of the Indian chief under pretense of hon-
oring him. He gave him a scarlet robe, mounted him on
a horse, and took him on his expedition. The cacique
saw that he was a prisoner, and when he arrived with
the Spaniards at the town of Mauvila, on the Alabama
River, he determined to free himself from his supposed
guard of honor. He had secretly ordered all his war-
riors to meet at Mauvila, and there the Spaniards suffered
a terrible disaster.

De Soto entered the town with two hundred infantry
and half his cavalry, the main body of the army having
been left behind under Luis de Moscoso. Shortly after
the arrival of the vanguard in the town, the war-whoop
of the Indians was heard, and the Spaniards were at-
tacked by countless numbers. The battle raged furi-
ously within the town, and then outside. The Indians
fought with wonderful courage, but were not able to resist
the attacks of the Spaniards after Moscoso had joined
his chief. Mauvila was burned, thousands of Indians,
men, women, and children, perished, and the Spaniards
lost eighty-two men and forty-two horses. After this
disaster De Soto resolved not to continue his march to

^n] DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 9

Achusi Bay, as he discovered that his men would probably
abandon the expedition if they came to the ships. He
decided to return northward in search of the promised
land of gold.

He soon arrived at what is now the State of Mississippi,
and in the country of the Chickasaws the Spaniards met
with a disaster even greater than that at Mauvila. Their
treatment of the Indians had been, as usual, harsh and
even cruel, and the latter attacked them one night in large
numbers. The town where they dwelt was burned, and
they lost forty men, nearly all their herd of swine, fifty
horses, and their baggage. They remained nearly with-
out clothing and without weapons, and in a desperate
situation. Their chief, however, inspired them with his
courage and fortitude. They re-tempered their swords,
made new lances and shields, and manufactured a fabric
for clothing.

After leaving the Chickasaw country, the Spaniards
reached, in April, 1541, the banks of a great river. De
Soto had discovered the mighty Mississippi. It was not
far from the mouth of the Arkansas River, at about the
thirty-fifth degree of latitude, that the Spanish chieftain
first beheld the Mississippi, which he called the Rio
Grande.

The Spaniards crossed the Mississippi, and proceeded
to the White River country in Arkansas. After they
had marched northward for some time, the winter became
very severe, and the invaders suffered intensely from
the cold. They were also harassed by the natives, and
De Soto resolved to return to the Mississippi, and to

10 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [uu

descend to its mouth in boats. He reached the village of
Guachoya, about twenty miles below the mouth of the
Arkansas, and there the intrepid captain expired, May
21, 1542. He was buried in the great river he had dis-
covered. He had named Luis de Moscoso his successor,
and the latter, with about three hundred men, succeeded,
after incredible sufferings, in sailing down the Mississippi
and reaching the coast of Mexico.

The expedition of Hernando de Soto was bold and
romantic, and is important on account of the discovery of
the Mississippi, but it required the wonderful energy and
courage of Robert Cavelier de La Salle to enable the
Europeans to colonize the country traversed by De Soto,
and to take advantage of the great river that passes
through Louisiana in its rapid course toward the Gulf
of Mexico.

CHAPTER II

The French Explorers
marquette and joilet— hennepin — la salle

Spirit of the French explorers— The St. Lawrence— Acadia — Quebec— The
missionaries — Montreal— La Salle — Discovery of the Ohio — Marquette —
Joliet — The Mississippi — Return of the explorers — Death of Marquette —
La Salle's plans — Frontenac — Tonty — Hennepin — The Griffin — Fort Creve-
coeur — Hennepin's expedition — Description of the Mississippi — Du Lhut
— " Louis," Indian name for " sun," according to Hennepin — First mention
of the name "Louisiane" — Gilmary Shea's opinion of Hennepin — La Salle
at Fort Frontenac — The Iroquois and the Illinois — La Salle enters the
Mississippi — The mouth of the Mississippi — Official account of taking pos-
session — Father Membre's description of the Mississippi — Fort St. Louis
of the Illinois— La Salle authorized to form a settlement — Fort St. Louis
of Texas — Murder of La Salle — Destruction of La Salle's settlement.

ORE than a century elapsed, after
the discovery of the Mississippi by
De Soto, before the mighty river
was visited again by white men, and
the explorers were no longer soldiers
clad in armor and adventurers cruel
and eager for gold, but peaceable
men, whose only thought was their King and their God.
Joliet and Marquette were very different from De
Soto and Moscoso, and the humble trader and the saintly
priest were as heroic as the warlike Spanish knights.

From the expedition of Ponce de Leon to that of De

11

12 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [leos

Soto, the Spaniards had failed in their undertakings to
conquer Florida and the country bordering on the Mis-
sissippi. The French were more successful in the north.
The Bretons, the Normans, and the Basques are said to
have discovered the coast of North America before John
Cabot, and in 1524 Verrazano was sent by Francis I
to explore the Atlantic coast of our present United
States. In 1534 Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Law-
rence, and in 1535 he saw the future sites of Quebec and
Montreal. He and Roberval attempted to establish a
colony on the St. Lawrence River, but were not success-
ful, and it was only in 1605 that a permanent settlement
was effected at Port Royal by De Monts and Poutrin-
court. This was the beginning of Acadia, which was to
be celebrated in history and in romance.

On the great St. Lawrence River Samuel Champlain
laid the foundation of Quebec in 1608 and was the pioneer
of New France. By the side of the French colonist and
of the soldier stood the Catholic priest — at first the Re-
collet friar, then the Jesuit father. The savage native
must be taught the word of Christ, he must be civilized
and become a faithful and peaceful subject of the King
of France. Such was the task of the Jesuit missionary,
and we follow him with wonder and admiration among
the Indians, where his courage never falters, where his
religious zeal is never abated, and where he gladly suf-
fers martyrdom for the cause of his God and his country.
The missionary of the seventeenth century may have
been somewhat of a fanatic, but his defects were those of
his age. His virtues were unflinching courage, unswerv-

16+2] FOUNDATION OF MONTREAL 13

ing devotion to duty, and sincere piety. The names of
Lejeune, Brebeuf, Gamier, Lallemand, Bressani, Jogues,
Dablon, Allouez, Marquette, and of many other humble
heroes, deserve to be inscribed in American history. Their
missions often failed, and most of them fell victims to
the rage of the barbarous savages, but, as Parkman ob-
serves, their labors were not in vain. The Indians were
civilized by them, to some extent, and in the wars of the
eighteenth century, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico,
we do not see the horrible deeds so frequent in the seven-
teenth century. The Iroquois fiends tortured the priests
and destroyed their missions ; but the fortitude and Chris-
tian spirit of the martyrs exerted unconsciously an in-
fluence over the demons of the Five Nations and of other
tribes.

The second city founded in Canada was Villemarie de
Montreal, in 1642, and it owed its birth to religious en-
thusiasm. " It was to be," says Parkman, " a sacred
town, reared to the honor and under the patronage of
Christ, St. Joseph, and the Virgin." The types of the
founders are represented by the saintly Mademoiselle
Mance and the brave and pious Maisonneuve. The town
resisted the fury of the Indians and served as a refuge to
the few missionaries who were not tortured by the Iro-
quois, at the time of the destruction of the Hurons, of
the Neutrals, and of the Andastes by the fierce warriors of
the Five Nations. Montreal plays an important part
in the history of the French explorers, who were to be
the successors of the missionaries in the virgin forests and
among the Indians.

14 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

1666

Although, in the first half of the seventeenth century,
France possessed Quehec and Montreal, on the mighty
St. Lawrence, the ambition of the officers of the King was
to extend the dominion of their monarch beyond the Great
Lakes, and to explore the country watered by the rivers
flowing toward the west and the south. The man who
was to accomplish this purpose was Robert Cavelier de
La Salle. Robert Cavelier, known as La Salle, from
the name of an estate near Rouen, was born, in 1643, of
a wealthy burgher family, and was connected in his youth
with the Jesuits, but he parted from the order on good
terms and went in 1666 to Montreal, where he had a
brother, Jean Cavelier, a Sulpitian priest. The Sulpi-
tians at that time were the feudal lords of Montreal, and
from them La Salle obtained the gratuitous grant of a
tract of land at the place now called La Chine, eight or
nine miles from Montreal. He soon began to effect a
settlement, but as his mind was fired with the desire of
exploring the great river so often mentioned by the In-
dians, he sold his seigniory to procure the means for an
expedition. He obtained the consent of the governor,
Courcelles, and of the intendant, Talon, and set out on
his first voyage of discovery, on July 6, 1669. Two Sul-
pitian priests, Dollier de Casson and Gallinee, who were
about to undertake an exploring expedition, were re-
quested by Governor Courcelles to act in concert with
La Salle. The latter parted from his companions in Sep-
tember at a place called Otinawatawa, on Lake Ontario.
Here he met Joliet, the future discoverer of the Missis-
sippi. The Sulpitians went toward the upper lakes, and

1671] DISCOVERY OF THE OHIO RIVER 15

La Salle proceeded on his journey to discover the great
rivers flowing south. There is some uncertainty about
his explorations at that time, but there is no doubt that he
discovered the Ohio River in 1671, and probably the Illi-
nois also. To other explorers, however, belongs the honor
of having been the first white men to rediscover the Mis-
sissippi, after Hernando de Soto.

The Jesuits had established missions on the upper lakes,
among which were those at Saut Sainte-Marie, at St.
Esprit, at Michilimackinac, and at Manatoulin Island.
One of their most zealous and most courageous mission-
aries was Jacques Marquette, and he was chosen to ac-
company the fur-trader Louis Joliet on an expedition
organized by Talon, the intendant, and approved by
Count Frontenac, after the intendant's departure from
the colony.

Louis Joliet was born at Quebec in 1645. He was
educated by the Jesuits and received the minor orders
of that religious company, but he finally became a fur-
trader. He was sent by the intendant Talon to explore
the copper-mines of Lake Superior, and it was on his
return that he met La Salle on Lake Ontario. He did
not succeed in this expedition, but Talon, who appears to
have had a high opinion of his intelligence and boldness,
selected him to rediscover the Mississippi. Joliet's associ-
ate, Father Jacques Marquette, was born at Laon in 1637.
He was renowned for his energy, his gentleness, and
his piety. His journal of the expedition is very in-
teresting.

The travelers set out from Michilimackinac on May

16 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ists

17, 1673, in two birch canoes, with five men. They soon
entered the Wisconsin River, and reached the Mississippi
on June 17, 1673. 1 " Behold us then," says Marquette,
" upon this celebrated river, whose singularities I have
attentively studied. The Mississippi takes its rise in sev-
eral lakes in the north. Its channel is very narrow at the
mouth of the Wisconsin, and runs south until it is affected
by very high hills. Its current is slow, because of its
depth. In sounding we found nineteen fathoms of water.
A little farther on it widens nearly three quarters of a
league, and the width continues to be more equal. We
slowly followed its course to the south and southeast to
the 42° north latitude. Here we perceived the country
change its appearance. There were scarcely any more
woods or mountains. The islands were covered with fine
trees, but we could not see any more roebucks, buffaloes,
bustards, and swans. We met from time to time mon-
strous fish, which struck so violently against our canoes,
that first we took them to be large trees, which threat-
ened to upset us. As we were descending the river we saw
high rocks with hideous monsters painted on them, upon
which the bravest Indians dare not look. As we fell down
the river, and while we were discoursing upon these mon-
sters, we heard a great rushing and bubbling of waters,
and small islands of floating trees coming from the mouth
of the Pekitanoui ( the Missouri ) , with such rapidity that
we could not trust ourselves to go near it. The water of
this river is so muddy that we could not drink it. It so
discolors the Mississippi as to make the navigation of
it dangerous. The river comes from the northwest, and

1673] MARQUETTE AND JOLIET 17

flows into the Mississippi, and on its banks are Indian
villages. We judged by the compass that the Mississippi
discharged itself into the Gidf of Mexico. It would,
however, have been more agreeable if it had discharged
itself into the South Sea or the Gulf of California."

The explorers descended the Mississippi to the mouth
of the Arkansas River, and, having established the fact
that the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico, they
set out on their return journey on July 17, 1673, and
reached Green Bay at the end of September. Joliet went
to Quebec, where the news of his discovery was received
with great joy, and Marquette remained at the mission.
The last words of the latter's journal testify to his sin-
cere piety: " If my perilous journey had been attended
with no other advantage than the salvation of one
soul, I would think my perils sufficiently rewarded. I
preached the Gospel to the Illinois of Perouacca for three
days together. My instructions made such an impression
upon these poor people that when we were about to depart
they brought to me a dying child to baptize, which I did,
about half an hour before he died, and which, by a spe-
cial providence, God was pleased to save." In 1674 Fa-
ther Marquette undertook to found a mission among the
Illinois, and he died on May 19, 1675. Like his prede-
cessors, Brebeuf, Lallemand, and Jogues, he was a mar-
tyr to his faith.

The discoveries of Marquette and Joliet are important,
but they led to no practical results. La Salle's explora-
tions are much more valuable. He intended to hold the
whole country for the French King, from the Great

18 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [mi

Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, establishing colonies and
keeping the Indians in check by posts in the interior, and
the Spaniards and the English by a fort at the mouth
of the Mississippi. Fortunately, in Count Frontenac he
found a zealous and powerful protector. The latter left
Quebec, and with a small force of soldiers and volunteers
struck boldly into the country of the Iroquois. He over-
awed the Indians and built a fort, which La Salle called
Fort Frontenac, and of which he obtained the grant from
the King, when he made a voyage to France in 1674. He
obtained also letters patent of nobility. His seigniory
prospered, but he cared not for riches. He was anxious
to explore the western and southern parts of New France,
and when he went to France in 1677 he obtained from the
King in 1678 a patent that authorized him to explore the
country, to build forts, and to find a way to Mexico, pro-
vided his enterprise be accomplished within five years. He
also obtained the monopoly of trade in buffalo hides. La
Salle met in France Henri de Tonty, who sailed with
him for Canada and became his ablest and most faithful
lieutenant. Tonty was an Italian, had lost a hand in
the Sicilian wars, and had replaced it by an iron one. He
is one of the most sympathetic characters to be found in
early American history.

On arriving at Quebec, La Salle found awaiting him
Father Louis Hennepin, who was to play an important
part in the proposed expedition. Hennepin was a Re-
collet friar, born in Hainault, and had settled at Fort
Frontenac in 1675. He was inured to fatigue and was
bold, but was conceited and apparently mendacious. His

1680J FORT CREVECCEUR 19

first work, " Description de la Louisiane " (Paris, 1683),
is important and interesting and tolerably accurate; but
after La Salle's death huge falsehoods appeared in the
friar's books. He and Lamothe preceded La Salle to the
Niagara River, where, two leagues above the Falls, La
Salle decided to build a ship. The explorer himself set
out on foot for Fort Frontenac, a distance of two hundred
and fifteen miles, and left Tonty to finish the vessel.
This was done, and the ship was named the Griffin, She
was ready for the expedition, but several months passed
before La Salle returned. He reported that his creditors
had seized his property in Canada. This, however, did
not deter him. He sailed on the Griffin into Lake Erie,
then into the Strait of Detroit, and then passed from Lake
St. Clair into the wide Lake Huron. He reached the
Jesuit mission of Michilimackinac, entered Lake Michi-
gan, and, at the entrance of Green Bay, found some of
his men with a large quantity of furs. These furs he
resolved, unfortunately, to send to Niagara on board of
the Griffin, and he never again heard of his vessel or his
furs. He continued his expedition in canoes, and entered
the St. Joseph River among the Miamis. Then, shoul-
dering their canoes, the men reached the Illinois River.
In the country of the Illinois, La Salle built Fort Creve-
coeur, and, as several of his men had deserted him, and
he was in great need of succor, he set out on foot for
Fort Frontenac, giving orders to build a new vessel in his
absence. Before leaving, he sent Father Hennepin to
explore the Illinois River to its mouth.

In the winter of 1680 Hennepin set out on his expedi-

20 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [igso

tion. He was accompanied by Accau and Du Gay. In
his " Description of Louisiana " 2 he says that he came
to the mouth of the river Seignelay (Illinois) on March
7, 1680, then he adds: " The river Colbert (Mississippi)
runs south-southwest, and comes from the north and
northwest ; it runs between two chains of mountains, very
small here, which wind with the river, and in some places
are pretty far from the banks, so that between the moun-
tains and the river there are large prairies, where you
often see herds of wild cattle browsing. In other places
these eminences leave semi-circular spots covered with
grass or wood. Beyond these mountains you discover
vast plains, but the more we approach the northern side
ascending, the earth did not appear to us so fertile, nor '
the woods so beautiful as in the Illinois country.

" This great river is almost everywhere a short league
in width, and in some places two leagues; it is divided
by a number of islands covered with trees, interlaced with
so many vines as to be almost impassable. It receives no
considerable river on the western side except that of the
Otontenta, and another, which comes from the west-north-
west, seven or eight leagues from the Falls of St. An-
thony of Padua."

Hennepin says that on April 11, 1680, he and his com-
panions were captured by a band of one hundred and
twenty Sioux. After many adventures they were found,
on July 25, 1680, not far from the Falls of St. Anthony,
by a celebrated coureur de bois, Greysolon du Lhut, ac-
companied by four Frenchmen. On Du Lhut's promis-
ing to come back with goods, Hennepin was allowed to
return with him by way of the Wisconsin River.

IliHO

THE NAME "LOUISIANE" 21

Hennepin's " Description de la Louisiane, nouvelle-
ment decouverte au Sud-Ouest de la Nouvelle France "
was dedicated to Louis XIV. The author says: " We
have given the name of Louisiane [Louisiana] to this
great Discovery, heing persuaded that your Majesty
would not disapprove that a part of the earth watered by
a river more than eight hundred leagues in length, and
much greater than Europe, which we may call the De-
light of America, and which is capable of forming a great
Empire, should henceforth be known under the august
name of Louis, that it may thereby have some show
of right to aspire to the honor of your protection, and
hope for the advantage of belonging to you." The
author adds that the Indians call the sun " Louis " in
their language, and that God had destined the King to
be the master of the new country. About this assertion
Parkman says: " The Yankton band of this people
(the Sioux), however, call the sun oouee, which, it is evi-
dent, represents the French pronunciation of Louis, omit-
ting the initial letter."

With regard to the name Louisiane mentioned by
Hennepin, we find it for the first time in Margry's " Ori-
gines francaises des Pays d'Outre Mer," page 21, Vol. II,
in a grant of an island to Francois Daupin, signed by
La Salle, June 10, 1679: " in a year from the day of our
return from the voyage which we are going to make for
the discovery of Louisiane {pour la descouverte de la
Louisiane) ."

As we have already said, Hennepin's " Description "
is important, but in 1697 another work was published,
dedicated to King William III of England, in which

22 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [isso

Hennepin declared that he had discovered the mouth of
the Mississippi before La Salle. The title of the book
is: " Nouvelle Decouverte d'un tres grand pays situe dans
l'Amerique " (Utrecht). In a third work, " Nouveau
Voyage d'un pays plus grand que l'Europe " (Utrecht,
1698), the claim made in the second work is repeated.
This is evidently a falsehood, but in justice to Hennepin
it must be said that it is maintained by Gilmary Shea, in
his scholarly edition of " Description of Louisiana," that
the Recollet monk should be exonerated from inten-
tional plagiarism and falsehood. According to Shea, the
Dutch publishers of Hennepin's work interpolated in the
book, without his knowledge, the account of La Salle's
journey in 1682 to the mouth of the Mississippi, to be
found in Le Clercq's " Etablissement de la Foi," an ac-
count written by Zenobe Membre and Anastase Douay,
two of La Salle's companions.

We left La Salle on his journey from Fort Crevecceur
to Fort Frontenac. It required sixty-five days of hard-
ship to reach his destination, and on arriving at Fort
Frontenac he received a letter from Tonty announcing
the mutiny and desertion of most of the men at Fort
Crevecceur. La Salle succeeded in intercepting and
punishing some of the deserters, and then set out to meet
Tonty.

During La Salle's absence the Iroquois invaded the
country of the Illinois, and nearly destroyed that tribe.
Tonty tried to protect the Illinois, and came near being
killed by the Iroquois. One of his companions, old Fa-
ther Ribourde, was murdered, and Tonty, with Father

ism] MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI 23

Zenobe Membre, Boisrondet, and two men, managed to
escape, after many adventures. La Salle made an alli-
ance with tbe Miamis and other tribes, met Tonty at
Michilimackinac, and returned with him to Fort Fron-
tenac to obtain the means to undertake, for the third time,
to descend the Mississippi to its mouth.

La Salle's party consisted of twenty-three Frenchmen,
eighteen Indians, ten squaws, and three Indian children.
They dragged their canoes from the Chicago to the Illi-
nois River, and after reaching Lake Peoria they floated
down the Illinois, and on February 6, 1682, they entered
the Mississippi. On February 24 they encamped near
the Third Chickasaw Bluffs, and there Pierre Prud-
homme, having gone out hunting, was lost for ten days.
La Salle gave to the fort he built at that place the name
of the unlucky hunter. On March 14 he took possession,
in the King's name, of the country of the Arkansas, with
the " consent " of the Indians.

The explorers continued their journey without further
mishap, making friends of the Indians who lived on the
banks of the river and who belonged to the tribes of the
Arkansas, the Tensas, the Natchez, the Coroas, the Ou-
mas, and the Quinipissas. At length, on April 6, 1682,
La Salle reached three channels, into which the river di-
vided itself, and, following the western channel, he sent
some of his men by the other two. They soon arrived at
the Gulf of Mexico, and there, on April 9, La Salle took
possession of the country, which he had already called
Louisiana, in the name of Louis XIV. The following
official account was drawn up by the notary of Fort Fron-

24 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [uses

tenac, a member of the expedition, Jacques de la Me-
tairie : s

At about the twenty-seventh degree of elevation from the pole,
a column and a cross were prepared, and on the column were
painted the arms of France with this inscription : " Louis le
Grand, Roy de France et de Navarre, regne le 9 e Avril, 1682."
All being under arms, they chanted the Te Dcum, the Exaudiat,
and the Dom'rne, salvum fac Re gem; then, after volleys of mus-
ketry and shouts of " Vive le Roy," M. de La Salle planted the
column, and, standing near it, said in a loud voice in French :

" In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible, and vic-
torious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace of God King of
France and of Navarre, Fourteenth of that name, I, this ninth
day of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty-two, in virtue
of the commission of his Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and
which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken and
do now take, in the name of his Majesty and of his successors to
the crown, possession of this country of Louisiana, the seas, har-
bors, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams, and rivers,
within the extent of the said Louisiana, from the mouth of the
great river St. Louis, otherwise called the Ohio, Olighinsipou or
Chukagoua, and this with the consent of the Chaouesnons, Chi-
cachas, and other peoples residing there with which we have
made alliance, as also along the river Colbert, or Mississippi, and
the rivers which discharge themselves thereinto, from its source
beyond the country of the Nadouessioux, and this with their con-
sent and of the Ototantas, Islinois, Matsigames, Akansas, Nat-
chez, Koroas, who are the most considerable nations that reside
there, with which we have made alliance by ourselves or through
persons in our name, as far as its mouth at the sea, or Gulf of
Mexico, and also to the mouth of the River of Palms, upon the
assurance we have had from the natives of these countries, that
we are the first Europeans who have descended or ascended the

1682] TAKING POSSESSION 25

said river Colbert; hereby protesting against all who may here-
after undertake to invade any or all of these aforesaid countries,
peoples, or lands, to the prejudice of the rights of his Majesty,
acquired by the consent of the nations dwelling herein. Of which,
and of all else that is needful, I hereby take to witness those who
hear me, and demand an act of the notary here present." A cross
was planted, and a leaden plate was buried near it, bearing the
arms of France on one side and a Latin inscription: Ludovicus
Magnus rcgnat nemo Aprilis 168%; and on the other: Robertus
Cavelier, cum domino dc Tonty, legato, R. P. Zenobio Membre,
Recollecto, et Viginti Gallis, primus hoc flumen inde ab Ilineomvm
pago enavigavit, ejusque ostium fecit pervium nono Aprilis anni
1682. The Vexilla and the Domine, salvum fac Regem were sung
in front of the cross, and the ceremony ended with shouts of
" Vive le Roy ! " The signers of the act were : De La Salle, F.
Zenobe, Recollect missionnaire, Henry de Tonty, Francois de Bois-
rondet, Jean Bourdon, sieur d'Autray, Jacques Cavehois, Gilles
Meneret, Jean Michel, chirurgien, Jean Mas, Jean du Lignon,
Nicolas de La Salle, La Metairie, notaire.

Father Zenobe Membre, in a letter from the river Mis-
sissippi, June 3, 1682, says: " The great river Mississippi
is very beautiful in all places, without any fall or rapid
from the Arkansas to the sea. It is full of crocodiles ; its
inundations in the spring spoil all its banks. The bless-
ings of the earth come there so happily that at the end
of April the Indian wheat was in bloom at the Coroas,
and the blossoms as high as poles. It is here the country
of canes, laurels, and palms ; there is an infinity of mul-
berry trees, of which we eat the fruit every day from the
beginning of May. In fifty days the wheat ripens."

The great explorer had succeeded in his efforts and had
descended the mighty Mississippi to its mouth. He now

26 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [i68*

wished to colonize Louisiana, named for the stately mon-
arch at Versailles. In order to strengthen his position in
the north, after his return from the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi, he established among the Illinois a colony of
Indians, which he called Fort St. Louis. He was very suc-
cessful in this enterprise, but his patron, Count Fron-
tenac, was recalled to France, and his successor, Le
Febvre de la Barre, was not friendly to La Salle and dis-
possessed him of Fort St. Louis. La Salle, therefore,
went to France to obtain justice from the King, and to
present his plan for establishing a colony at the mouth
of the Mississippi and for conquering the province of
New Biscay in Mexico.

The explorer had an interview with Louis XIV him-
self, and his plans were favorably received both by the
King and by his minister Seignelay, the distinguished
son of Colbert. La Salle was authorized to form a set-
tlement at the mouth of the Mississippi, and La Barre
was ordered to surrender all that belonged to the explorer.
Four vessels were given to him, and he took with him sol-
diers, mechanics, laborers, volunteers, several families, and
a number of girls. He had also his brother Cavelier, who
was a Sulpitian priest, two other priests of that order,
three Recollet friars, Zenobe Membre his former compan-
ion, Anastase Douay, Joutel, and Maxime Le Clercq.
Unfortunately, the command of the expedition was di-
vided: Beaujeu was to direct the vessels, and La Salle to
direct the route and command the men on land. As is
usually the case, the two commanders did not agree.

The ships sailed from La Rochelle on July 24, 1684,

1685] FORT ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS 27

and reached Santo Domingo after a voyage of two
months. On the island La Salle was very ill, and when
he resumed his journey he appeared to have hecome irri-
table and to distrust Beaujeu. The ships entered the
Gulf of Mexico, but passed by the mouth of the Missis-
sippi and went to the coast of what is now Texas. La
Salle mistook the entrance of Matagorda Bay for one
of the mouths of the Mississippi, and resolved to establish
his colony there. One of his vessels, the Aimable, was
wrecked, laden with the stores of the colony, and Beaujeu
returned to France on the Joly. Shortly after the de-
parture of the Joly, La Salle discovered that he was not
at the mouth of the Mississippi. He did not lose courage,
however, but built a fort, which he called St. Louis, and
set out on an expedition to find the " fatal river." In his
absence he gave the command of the fort to Joutel, the
historian of the expedition and his most trusty follower.
La Salle was absent several months, and was unsuccess-
ful in his search. Shortly after his return his only remain-
ing vessel, the Belle, was wrecked. There was now no
way of reaching the Mississippi by sea, and La Salle
formed the bold plan of going to Canada to get help for
his colony. He departed with sixteen followers, among
whom were his faithful Joutel, his brother Cavelier, their
nephews Moranget and young Cavelier, the friar Anas-
tase Douay, Duhaut, the surgeon Liotot, the German
Hiens, the pilot Teissier, Duhaut's servant, and Nika, La
Salle's Indian hunter.

It appears that the great explorer was a stern com-
mander, not knowing how to make himself popular with

28 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [i<»t

men who could not understand his indomitable energy
and courage. Moranget, his nephew, was violent and
rash and offended Duhaut. The latter made a plot with
Hiens, Teissier, and Larcheveque, and when they were
sent to get some food they murdered in their sleep Mo-
ranget, Nika the hunter, and Saget, La Salle's servant.
The commander, not seeing Moranget return, went with
Father Anastase Douay and an Indian to look for his
nephew. He met Duhaut, who spoke to him with inso-
lence, and as La Salle advanced to chastise him a shot was
fired and La Salle was killed. Thus died, on March 18,
1687, one of the most remarkable men that history pre-
sents to us, one whose labors, though apparently unsuc-
cessful, rendered possible the settlement of Louisiana.

Nearly all the murderers of La Salle were killed in
their turn, some by their accomplices, others by the
Indians. Cavelier and his young nephew, Joutel, and
Anastase Douay succeeded in reaching Fort St. Louis
of the Illinois. Tonty, the chivalric and devoted
companion of La Salle, had descended, in 1685, to the
mouth of the Mississippi to meet his chief, and, not find-
ing him, left a letter for him and returned to the Illinois.
We shall see him again in Louisiana with Iberville, when
that gallant Canadian has succeeded, in 1699, in effect-
ing a settlement in the country explored and named by La
Salle. As to the latter's colony at Fort St. Louis of
Texas, it was destroyed by the Indians. Tonty tried to
rescue the colonists, but could not reach the fort, and the
Spaniards from Mexico, having made an expedition to
dislodge the French, found at La Salle's Fort St. Louis

K> * f

1687] DESTRUCTION OF THE FORT 29

no human beings. A few of the unfortunates were dis-
covered among the Indians, and were rescued by the
Spaniards. Iberville and Bienville are the founders of
Louisiana, but we should always remember in our history
the name of the heroic explorer, Robert Cavelier de La
Salle.

CHAPTER III

The Settlement of Louisiana

IBERVILLE, SAUVOLE, AND BIENVILLE

The condition of France from 1687 to the treaty of Ryswick — Maurepas
chooses Iberville for the Louisiana expedition — The sons of Charles Le
Moyne — Names of Le Moyne's children— Joutel's " Relation "—Father Anas-
tase Douay — Iberville arrives at Ship Island in February, 1699— Recep-
tion of Iberville by the Indians — The first fort at Biloxi — Iberville finds the
mouth of the Mississippi — Exploration of the river — Origin of name Baton
Rouge— Pointe Coupee — Tonty's letter — Iberville starts to return to his
ships — Iberville River, Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, Bay St. Louis
— Success of Iberville's expedition — Sauvole the first commandant or gov-
ernor of Louisiana — Visit of Bayagoula chiefs and their squaws — The
"English Turn" — Return of Iberville— Fort on the Mississippi— Fort Ro-
salie— Le Sueur's "blue and green earth" — Bienville's journey to the
northwest — Death of Sauvole — Bienville in command — Iberville's last
voyage to Louisiana — War of the Spanish Succession — The seat of the
colony removed from Biloxi — Fort Louis de la Mobile— Commissary de
La Salle— Curate de la Vente — Death of Iberville.

ROM La Salle's death in 1687,
several years elapsed before another
attempt was made to explore and
colonize Louisiana, and the only
white men to be seen in the vast coun-
try watered by the Mississippi were
bold adventurers, coureurs de bois,
who traded with the Indians and led their wild life, and
devoted missionaries ever ready to endure all hardships in
order to convert the Indians to the religion of Christ.
The condition of France, shortly after the failure of

30

1697] THE TREATY OF RYSWICK 31

La Salle's colony, was not favorable for another colonial
expedition. In 1688 James II of England was over-
thrown, and Louis XIV received him in a regal man-
ner. The French monarch assigned to the dethroned
Stuart as his residence St. Germain-en-Laye, the beau-
tiful castle of Francis I, and gave him an army, that
he might reconquer his kingdom. James was defeated
at the Boyne, and William of Orange, the implacable
enemy of Louis, organized a coalition in Europe against
France. The great admiral Tourville was vanquished
at La Hogue; but on the Continent Luxembourg and
Catinat were victorious, as formerly Conde and Tu-
renne. Louis XIV, although victorious, signed in 1697
the treaty of Ryswick, by which he recognized William
III as King of England. He consented to this peace,
humiliating to his pride, because he saw that Charles II
of Spain was dying, and he wished to be prepared to take
possession of the immense succession of the last Spanish
monarch of the house of Austria.

Colbert and his son Seignelay were both dead, and in
1697 the minister of marine was Louis de Phelypeaux,
Count de Pontchartrain, with whom was associated his
son Jerome, Count de Maurepas, who became minister
of marine in 1699. In 1694 Henri de Tonty, the faithful
companion of La Salle, offered his services to continue
the undertaking of the latter in order to forestall the
English. The Sieur de Remonville, in 1697, proposed the
formation of a company to colonize Louisiana. Jerome
Pontchartrain (Maurepas), however, says Margry, 1
" thought that land officers could not fulfil properly a

32 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [i«»

mission for which maritime knowledge was necessary."
He chose, therefore, in 1G98, for the Louisiana expedi-
tion, a brilliant marine officer, Pierre Le Moyne dTber-
ville, a Canadian by birth, of whom one of the directors
of the Hudson Bay Company had said that " he was as
military as his sword." Iberville had lately distinguished
himself in Hudson Bay, where, with one vessel, he fought
against three English ships, sinking one, capturing the
second, and putting the third to flight. Jerome Pont-
chartrain summoned him to the court at Versailles and
intrusted him with the task of re-discovering the Mis-
sissippi.

Iberville was the third son of Charles Le Moyne, a
native of Dieppe, who had emigrated to Canada at the
age of fourteen, and in 1676 had become Sieur de Lon-
gueil. His wife was Catherine Primot. Charles Le
Moyne's family may be compared with that of the
Norman nobleman of the eleventh century, Tancrede
de Hauteville. They each had sons who were intrepid
warriors and wise men. Those of the Sieur de Haute-
ville were not more heroic than the sons of the Sieur
de Longueil. The former founded principalities and
kingdoms in Italy and in the Orient, and we see in his-
tory and in romance the names of Robert Guiscard and
his son Bohemond of Tarentum, of Roger of Sicily, and
of Tasso's perfect knight, Tancred, who won the love
of the fair and heroic Clorinda and then slew her in
combat without knowing her. The Canadian brothers,
of whom nine were distinguished, were of Norman blood,
and, like William who defeated Harold the Saxon and

1698]

CHARLES LE MOYNE 33

conquered England, they were both warriors and states-
men. Three of them were killed righting for their King,
and two were to be the founders of Louisiana. No names
are more important in our history than those of Iberville
and Bienville, sons of Charles Le Moyne.

Charles Le Moyne and Catherine Primot had four-
teen children, 2 as follows: Charles, Sieur de Longueil;
Jacques, Sieur de Sainte-Helene; Pierre, Sieur d'lber-
ville; Paul, Sieur de Maricourt; Francois, Sieur de Bien-
ville I; Joseph, Sieur de Serigny; Louis, Sieur de Cha-
teauguay I; Jean-Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville II; An-
toine, Sieur de Chateauguay II; Francois-Marie, Sieur
de Sauvole; Catherine- Jeanne ; Marie-Anne; Gabriel,
and a child who died on the day of his birth.

Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, was born at Ville-
marie (Montreal) on July 16, 1661. The biographers
of his family call him " the greatest warrior that Canada
has produced." He died on July 9, 1706, and left a son
and a daughter. His widow married in France M. de
Bethune, lieutenant-general in the armies of the King.
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville II, was born
at Villemarie (Montreal) on February 23, 1680, and
died in Paris on March 7, 1768. Jacques, Sieur de
Sainte-Helene, was killed at the siege of Quebec in 1690.
Francois, Sieur de Bienville I, was killed at Repentigny
in 1691. Sauvole was killed by the savages in 1687.' !
Paul, Sieur de Maricourt, distinguished himself with
Iberville in Hudson Bay; he was employed several times
upon important missions to the Iroquois, and was known
among them under the symbolic name of Taouistaouisse, 4

34 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [\<m

or " little bird that is always in motion." Joseph, Sieur
de Serigny, became a captain in the royal navy and dis-
tinguished himself in Louisiana. He died Governor of
Rochefort in 1723. Louis, Sieur de Chateauguay (or
Chateaugue) I, was killed in 1694, fighting by the side
of Iberville. Antoine, Sieur de Chateauguay II, aided
Bienville in the colonization of Louisiana. He served
afterward at Martinique, was Governor of Cayenne from
1737 to 1744, Governor of He Royale in 1745, and died
at Rochefort in 1747. Catherine Jeanne married Pierre
Payen, Seigneur de Noyan. Marie- Anne married the
Sieur de la Chassaigne. Several of the nephews of Bien-
ville served in Louisiana: Sainte-Helene, who was killed
by the savages, the Baron de Longueil, and several Noy-
ans, among whom was one of the " martyrs " of the Revo-
lution of 1768.

Pontchartrain was desirous that Joutel, who was then
living at Rouen, should accompany Iberville on his voy-
age; but the historian of La Salle's last expedition did
not wish to run the risk of another exploration. His
" Relation," however, was sent to Iberville by Pontchar-
train, and Father Anastase Douay was induced to join
the expedition. He had been a companion of La Salle in
his journey to the mouth of the Mississippi, and in the ill-
fated expedition of 1684. He had been more fortunate
than Father Zenobe Membre, who perished at Fort St.
Louis of Texas.

Iberville's fleet sailed from Brest on October 24, 1698;
it consisted of two small frigates — the Badine, com-
manded by Iberville himself, and the Marin, commanded

1699

IBERVILLE 35

by the Chevalier de Surgeres — and two store-ships. At
Santo Domingo the Marquis de Chateaumorant, comman-
der of the war-ship Francois, a nephew of the great Tour-
ville, joined the expedition and accompanied it to its desti-
nation. Iberville took as pilot Lawrence de Graaf, a
celebrated buccaneer, and on January 25, 1699, anchored
before the island of St. Rosa. On the mainland the Span-
iards had formed a settlement at Pensacola, and the com-
mander did not allow the French to enter the harbor.
They sailed, therefore, to Mobile Bay, and explored an
island on which they found a heap of human bones, which
they called Massacre Island. The ships proceeded to the
Chandeleur Island; then a pass was found between Cat
Island and Ship Island, and there they cast anchor. On
February 13, 1699, 5 Iberville and his brother Bienville
went to the mainland, where, an old man and a squaw hav-
ing been well treated by the French, the Indians were
persuaded to meet them. The savages, who were Biloxis,
were delighted with the treatment they received from the
white men. " Iberville took to his ship four of these sav-
ages, and left his brother on land as a hostage. The same
evening eighty Bayagoulas arrived at that coast, going
to make war against the Mobilians. All that could be
learned from this nation was that they were established
on the banks of a large river, which they showed toward
the west." 6

Penicaut, the carpenter, who has left us an interesting
narrative of the events that took place in Louisiana dur-
ing his stay there, says that, after a fort had been built
at Biloxi, several chiefs came to see Iberville and honored

36 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [m 9

him greatly. They presented the calumet for him to
smoke, then they rubbed his face with white earth. For
three days they danced and sang three times a day. On
the third day they planted a post before the fort, and went
to get Iberville. One of the Indians took him on his back,
while another held up his feet, and they carried him to the
post to the sound of their chichicois. These were gourds
filled with pebbles, with which a strange noise was pro-
duced. The commander was placed on a deerskin, and
a chief put his hands on his shoulders from behind and
rocked him as if he were a baby going to sleep. Then
the savages struck the post one after another with a
wooden hatchet, relating each time their heroic deeds, —
and " even more," adds Penicaut. Presents were given
to them, and they were much astonished at the noise made
by the firing of the guns.

The first fort built by Iberville was on the northeast
side of the bay of Biloxi, 7 a little to the rear of what is
now Ocean Springs. The place is less exposed to storms
than the land fronting on the Sound. Although the
French arrived at Biloxi on February 13, 8 they must have
been delighted with the appearance of the place. On
landing from their boats they stepped on sand as white
as silver, over which rolled gently the blue waves of the
Gulf ; before them were spread as a curtain the tall pine-
trees, among which were seen majestic live-oaks and
splendid magnolias, while birds of all colors chirped and
sang incessantly amid the boughs. Not far from the
coast they saw Deer Island, and in their boats they passed
between the island and the shore, and on turning the

1699] BILOXI 37

point they soon reached the heautiful bay of Biloxi.
The site chosen by Iberville for his fort was certainly
charming, but he made a mistake in trying to establish
his colony on a land distant from any large river, and
which proved to be stei'ile.

The Marquis de Chateaumorant took leave of Iberville
on February 21, 1699, and on February 27 the latter
set out with two rowboats and two birch canoes in search
of the large and fatal river, the Palissada of the Span-
iards, the Malbanchya of the Indians on the Gulf coast.
Iberville was accompanied by the Sieur de Sauvole, his
brother Bienville, Father Anastase Douay, and forty-
eight men, with provisions for twenty days. They sailed
until March 2, and on that day the mouth of the great
Mississippi was re-discovered. He endeavored to double
a point of rocks, " but," says Iberville, 9 " night coming,
and bad weather continuing, so that it was impossible to
resist without going to the coast or perishing at sea, I bore
on the rocks, to reach the coast in the daytime, in order to
be able to save my people and my boats. On approaching
these rocks to seek a shelter, I perceived there was a river.
I passed between two of these rocks, there being twelve
feet of water, with a very heavy sea, where, on approach-
ing the rocks, I found sweet water with a very strong
current. These rocks are of wood petrified with mud, and
have become black rocks, which resist the sea. They are
innumerable, out of water, some large, some small, at
a distance from one another of twenty steps, one hundred,
three hundred, five hundred, more or less, running to the
southwest, which has made me know that it was the Palis-

38 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

1699

sada River, which seemed to me well named, for, being
at its mouth, which is a league and a half from these rocks,
it appeared all barred by rocks. At its entrance there are
only twelve to fifteen feet of water, by which I passed,
which seemed to me one of the best passes, where the
sea broke the least. Between the two points of the river
I found ten fathoms, the river being three hundred and
fifty fathoms wide, the current one league and a third
an hour, the water all muddy and very white. Lying on
these reeds we felt, sheltered from the bad weather, the
pleasure of seeing ourselves protected from an evident
peril."

The " muddy and very white water " seemed to indi-
cate that it was the long-sought Mississippi, and the
French began to go up the river on March 3, Shrove
Tuesday ; for which reason Iberville named a point twelve
leagues from the mouth of the stream " Mardi Gras."
The first Indians they met belonged to the tribes of the
Bayagoulas and Mongoulachas, and the chief of the lat-
ter wore a cloak of blue serge, which he said was pre-
sented to him by Tonty. On his way up the river, Iber-
ville pitched his camp on the site of the present city of
New Orleans, at a place where the Indians told him that,
at a short distance from the river, a bayou (rivulet) ran
into a lake. On arriving at the village of the Baya-
goulas, Iberville thought he should find a fork which
would lead him from the river to the Gulf, but the natives
told him they knew of no other communication on the left
bank but a small stream called Ascantia,now Bayou Iber-
ville or Manchac. This they saw a little farther; it sepa-

ltiSill

THE NAME " BATON ROUGE" 39

rated the hunting-grounds of the Bayagoulas from those
of the Oumas. " There are on the hank," says Iberville,
" many cabins covered with palmetto leaves, and a May-
pole without branches, reddened with several heads of fish
and of bears attached as a sacrifice." This red pole
(baton rouge) is said to have given its name to the
present capital of Louisiana, but Penicaut, in his " Rela-
tion," 10 gives a different account: " From there we went
up five leagues, where we found very high banks, which
are called in that country bluffs (Ecores), and in the
language of the savages Istrouma, which signifies Baton
Rouge, because there is at that place a post painted red,
which the savages had planted to mark the separation
of the lands of two nations — the Bayagoulas, whence we
had come, and another thirty leagues above Baton Rouge,
called the Oumas. These two nations were so jealous of
their hunting-grounds that they shot at those of their
neighbors whom they found hunting beyond the limits
marked by this red post."

The French next came to a bend, where Iberville no-
ticed a small outlet obstructed with trees. These were
cleared, and the barges soon reached the river again, eigh-
teen miles above the point where the outlet had been seen.
The Mississippi gradually adopted this outlet as its bed,
and later the place was called Pointe Coupee. The ex-
plorers reached soon afterward a large bend, supposed to
be the one now opposite the mouth of Red River, and ar-
rived at the village of the Oumas, where they were most
hospitably received. There Iberville learned from the
Bayagoulas that Tonty had left a letter with the chief

40 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [lew

of the Mongoulachas, which tribe was called formerly the
Quinipissas. The French commander proceeded only a
little farther. He ordered Sauvole and Bienville to de-
scend the Mississippi to its mouth, and to obtain Tonty's
letter from the Mongoulachas. This was done. The
letter was dated from the village of the Quinipissas, April
20, 1685, and was written by Tonty to his beloved chief
when the heroic Italian descended the river to meet La
Salle, on hearing of his departure from France on his last
expedition. In his " Journal " Iberville gives the follow-
ing interesting extract from Tonty's letter to La Salle:

Sir : Having found the post, where you had raised the arms of
the King, thrown down by the driftwood, I had another one planted
above, at about seven leagues from the sea, and I left a letter in
a tree near by, in a hole on the other side, with a sign above. The
Quinipissas having danced the calumet for me, I left this letter
with them to assure you of my very humble respects, and to let
you know that at the news which I received at the fort, that you
had lost a ship, and that savages having pillaged your goods,
you were fighting against them, I came down with twenty-five
Frenchmen, five Chaouanons, and five Illinois. All the natives have
danced the calumet. They are people who fear us extremely
since you have defeated this village. I end by telling you that it
is a great sorrow for me that we should return with the misfortune
of not having found you, after two canoes have coasted along
Mexico thirty leagues, and along the cape of Florida twenty-five,
which have been obliged to give up for lack of water. Although
we have had no news from you or seen marks of you, I do not
despair that God will give good success to your affairs and your
enterprise. I wish it with all my heart, since you have no servant
more faithful than I, who would sacrifice everything to look for
you. 11

i«99] THE ASCANTIA RIVER 41

On March 23 Iberville set out to return to his ships.
The Bayagoulas and the Ounias bade him farewell, and
the chief of the latter and one of his principal warriors
conducted Iberville to his boat, holding him under the
arms, to help him to walk, from fear any accident might
happen to him on their land. The chief of the Bayagou-
las embarked with him, three volleys of musketry were
fired, and the savages answered with cries of joy the
" Vive le Roi! " of the French.

On March 24 Iberville entered the Ascantia, named
later Iberville, " a river," says he, " which goes to Biloxi
and to the bay where are the ships." He had two bark
canoes, four of his men, and a Mongoulacha Indian. The
stream was very narrow and was obstructed with fallen
trees, and in two leagues there were ten portages. On
the second day there were fifty portages, and the French
reached a beautiful country — level ground, fine trees, and
no wild cane. There were many turkeys in the woods,
and fish and alligators in the rivulet. The Mongoulacha
abandoned Iberville; but the latter, although he had no
guide, continued his journey instead of returning to the
Mississippi. It was a rather bold undertaking, but not
one that could embarrass the brave Canadian sailor. He
said he wished to show the savages that he could go wher-
ever he pleased without a guide, and he added, with char-
acteristic energy: " Whatever may happen, I shall always
reach the ships, were I to go by land and abandon my
canoes and make others." He finally arrived at two lakes,
which he named respectively Maurepas and Pontchar-
train. He returned to Ship Island a little before Bien-

42 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1699

ville and Sauvole. On April 12 he visited a bay, which he
named St. Louis ; but, having found little water there, he
resolved to place definitely the principal establishment of
the colony at the eastern extremity of the bay of Biloxi.
On May 1 he completed a fort with four bastions, armed
with twelve camion, and gave the command of it to Sau-
vole. He appointed his brother Bienville lieutenant
(second in command), and Levasseur Russouelle major,
and left at Biloxi seventy men and six sailor boys, and
provisions for four months. On May 4, 1699, he sailed
for France on board the Badine, with the Count de Sur-
geres, who commanded the Marin.

Iberville had succeeded in his undertaking: he had
re-discovered the Mississippi River, and had sown the
seed from which was to grow our Louisiana. He was
again to revisit his infant colony, but he died too soon to
see it prosper. Had he lived only a few years longer,
Bienville would not have had such a hard struggle to keep
alive the colony planted on the shore of Biloxi. Iber-
ville's influence at court would have helped Bienville,
and the two courageous brothers would have worked
with zeal and harmony to build on a solid foundation
the settlement established after so many years of hard-
ship.

After Iberville's departure, Sauvole remained in com-
mand of the infant colony, and in his " Journal " he gives
a clear and concise account of what he did. He begins
by saying that he had great difficulty in maintaining dis-
cipline among his men, and that he had mass celebrated
every day. The chaplain was Father Bordeneau; the

1699] THE "ENGLISH TURN" 43

former companion of La Salle, Father Anastase Douay,
had returned to France with Iberville.

On May 17, 1699, Sauvole received the visit of the
chief of the Bayagoulas and three other Indians. He
ordered the soldiers to present arms, and he gave presents
to the savages. The next morning the latter said their
wives were not far distant and would like to see the fort.
When the squaws appealed, the chief claimed for his wife
the same honors as for himself. This gallantry astonished
the French commander, and although he complied with
the request, he took care to let his guest know that he
and his men feared nobody.

Sauvole sent Bienville on excursions among the Cola-
pissas, the Mobilians, and other neighboring tribes, and
also to explore again the Mississippi. Bienville left Bi-
loxi on August 24, 1699, and with five men in two bark
canoes went up the great river as far as the Ouachas. On
his return journey he met, on September 16, twenty-eight
leagues from the mouth of the river, an English frigate,
the captain of which said he intended to form a settlement
on the coast of the Mississippi. Bienville, according to
the " Journal Historique," " assured him that the river
which he was seeking was more to the west, and that the
river, where he was, was a dependency of Canada, of
which possession had been taken in the name of His Most
Christian Majesty." The captain turned back and de-
parted, and the place on the river where this happened is
still called the " English Turn."

Penicaut relates the story differently and says: "M.
de Bienville went to him and asked him what he was com-

44 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [i<»»

ing to seek at the Mississippi, and whether he did not
know that the French were established in the country.
The Englishman, very much astonished, answered him
that he knew nothing about it, and departed a moment
later to return to the sea, grumbling very much against
the French and M. de Bienville. This is what has caused
this turn to be called the ' English Turn,' which name it
bears to-day."

Sauvole, in his " Journal," says : " On going down the
river, twenty-five leagues from its mouth M. de Bien-
ville met an English frigate of twelve cannon, which he
opposed, according to the order which I had given him.
The captain, named Bar, acknowledged to him ingenu-
ously that he had explored this river only to make there
an establishment for a company; but seeing that we had
taken possession of it before them, and believing that we
were established farther up, he decided to return, assuring
our men that he would be seen again next year." The
above three versions are given, 12 as the story has been
much discussed. The English were claiming Louisiana
as forming part of the Carolinas. On board the Eng-
lish vessel was a French engineer, M. Secon, 13 a Protes-
tant, who gave secretly to Bienville a petition addressed
to the King, by which he assured the latter that four hun-
dred Protestant families would come to Louisiana from
the Carolinas if the King would grant them liberty of
conscience. The petition was sent to Pontchartrain, who
refused the request.

Sauvole speaks of the intense heat in the summer of

1699] RETURN OF IBERVILLE 45

1699, of the numberless alligators and snakes around the
fort, and of the barrenness of the land. He adds that,
unless a gold-mine is discovered, the King will not be
compensated for his expenses. As for the natives, they
were all very poor. The winter was exceedingly cold, and
the colonists suffered considerably. They were delighted
at the arrival of Iberville, on December 8, 1699, with sup-
plies and reinforcements. He was accompanied by
Boisbriant, who was to be major at Biloxi, two officers,
and Saint-Denis and De Malton. Having been told of
the expedition of the English corvette met by Bienville
in the Mississippi, Iberville determined to ascend that
river once more. He ordered a fort to be built, 14 fifty-
four miles from the mouth of the river, and he went up
the Mississippi as far as the Natchez. He was well
pleased with the country of the latter, and laid the plan
of a fort to be called Fort Rosalie for the Countess de
Pontchartrain. On his journey Iberville had the pleasure
to meet Tonty, who had come to offer his services to the
French. On his second voyage to Biloxi, Iberville com-
manded the frigate Renommee, and Surgeres the frigate
Gironde. The King had confirmed Iberville's appoint-
ment of Sauvole as commander at Biloxi, and of Bienville
as lieutenant, second in command.

At this time took place the expedition, in quest of
mineral wealth, of the geologist Le Sueur, to the Sioux
country, which the carpenter Penicaut has related in his
usual simple and charming manner. A quantity of blue
and green earth was brought back by Le Sueur from what

46 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA inoi

was thought to he a copper-mine, and the precious freight
was carried to France ; " but," says Penicaut, " we never
had any news of it since."

From the Tensas village, where Iberville set out to
return to his fort on the Mississippi, Bienville began his
journey to the northwest. He went to the country of the
Yatasses, of the Ouachitas, and of the Natchitoches, and
he heard of no Spanish settlement. He was accompanied
by St. Denis, who became later thoroughly acquainted
with the Spaniards in Mexico.

Iberville left Bienville in command of the fort on the
Mississippi, and returned to France on May 28, 1700.
Both Sauvole and Bienville had great difficulty in main-
taining their settlements, in spite of occasional help from
the mother country. On August 22, 1701, Sauvole, the
first Governor of Louisiana, died of fever. 15 He was a
man of honor, of courage, and of judgment. Bienville
succeeded him in the command of the colony. Jean-Bap-
tiste Le Moyne was oidy twenty-two years of age, but
had been for several years a constant companion of his
brother Iberville in the latter's glorious expeditions.
Bienville already had experience and judgment, and
from the death of Sauvole he was for many years the
most important personage in the history of French Loui-
siana.

The founder of Louisiana returned to his colony for
the last time on December 18, 1701. He brought the
news of the accession of Philip, Duke of Anjou, to the
throne of Spain. Charles II, the last Spanish monarch
of the house of Austria, died in 1700, and, not wishing

1709] FORT LOUIS DE LA MOBILE 47

to see his monarchy dismembered, he named as his heir
the second son of the Dauphin. The kingdom that Fer-
dinand and Isabella had founded, to which Columbus had
given a new world, and Cortez and Pizarro the countless
treasures of Mexico and Peru, the country in the capital
of which Francis I had been a prisoner for a year, where
Charles V and Philip II had reigned, had been weakened
by the wars of Charles and the intolerance and despotism
of Philip, and the third and the fourth Philip had done
nothing to arrest the decay of their monarchy. Louis
XIV had married the oldest daughter of Philip IV, and
in 1700 he allowed his grandson to accept the Spanish suc-
cession. This elevation of a Bourbon to the Spanish
throne caused a coalition of nearly all Europe against
France and Spain, and the disasters of the war reacted on
Louisiana.

On his last voyage Iberville commanded again the
Henommee, and his brother Serigny commanded the Pal-
mier. The valiant sailor was in bad health, but he dis-
played his usual energy. He gave orders to Bienville to
remove the seat of the colony from Biloxi, and to form an
establishment on Mobile River. When Iberville arrived
on his third voyage he found only one hundred and fifty
persons in the colony. More than sixty men had died at
Biloxi, and for three months the garrison had subsisted
on a little corn.

On January 6, 1702, Bienville set out with his garrison
to found the new settlement. He left twenty soldiers at
Biloxi, under the command of Boisbriant, and met on
Massacre (called later Dauphine) Island his brothers

48 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [noa

Serigny and Chateaugue and Nicolas de La Salle, the
new intendant or commissary, who were huilding a store-
house there. On January 16, 1702, 16 Bienville and Se-
rigny went up Mobile River, and at a point eighteen
leagues from the sea began the construction of a fort and
of a storehouse. Iberville, who reached the new establish-
ment on March 3, was delighted with the country, which
he declared to be " perfectly beautiful."

The intendant, Nicolas de La Salle, had been one of
Robert Cavelier de La Salle's companions on his jour-
ney down the Mississippi in 1682, and he is mentioned
by Iberville as being the first man that took his wife and
his children to the colony. He arrived with his family
on March 19, 1702, at the settlement on Mobile River,
which was called Fort Louis de la Mobile. Nicolas de La
Salle and the curate de la Vente were to be a little later
bitter enemies of Bienville, while Father Gravier and the
commissary Diron dArtaguette, successor to La Salle,
were to be his friends and defenders.

Bienville's lot was hard, on account of the feuds in the
colony, and the difficulty of providing the people under
his charge with the means of existence. Iberville saw the
necessity of tilling the ground, and asked the French
minister to send farmers to Louisiana, and not adven-
turers. He remained but a short time in the colony on
his third voyage, and sailed for France on April 27, 1702.
He never returned to his settlement, but as long as he
lived he attended to the needs of the infant colony, and he
succeeded, in spite of the war in Europe, in having sup-
plies sent to Louisiana. He died of yellow fever in 1706,

1706] DEATH OF IBERVILLE 49

at Havana, where he had gone to obtain reinforcements
from the Spaniards for an attack on the Carolinas. Iber-
ville was a worthy successor of La Salle; he was as able
and as courageous: but, more fortunate than the great
Norman explorer and discoverer, the Canadian sailor suc-
ceeded in colonizing the land to which La Salle had given
the name of " Louisiane."

CHAPTER IV

The Struggle for Existence — The Founding
of New Orleans

Hardships of the colonists— Dealings with the Indians — Death of Tonty—
Census of 1704— Census of 1706-De Muys— Diron d'Artaguette— D'Arta-
guette and Bienville advocate an establishment on the Mississippi— P6-
nicaut's life with the Indians— Slow progress of Louisiana— Grant to Cro-
zat— Governor Lamothe Cadillac —Letters patent to Crozat — Adminis-
tration of Lamothe Cadillac — Customs of the Natchez Indians— Bienville's
punishment of the Natchez chiefs — Governor de l'FLpinay— Intendant Hu-
bert — Early settlements — Fort Cond6 of Mobile — Dubreuil — Young D'Ar-
taguette— The Western Company— John Law — Abstract of the charter of
the Western Company — Foundation of New Orleans in February, 1718 —
New Biloxi — The Superior Council in 1719 — War with Spain— Capture of
Pensacola— Expeditions of Dutisn£ and of La Harpe— The German Coast
— Pauger's report about the mouth of the Mississippi— New Orleans be-
comes the capital — La Tour's report— The hurricane of 17J3 — Comman-
dants of posts — Names of districts — Father Charlevoix's letter— Descrip-
tion of Louisiana by Le Page du Pratz— Le Page's arrival in the colony —
His concession near New Orleans— The calumet dance— Departure for the
Natchez country— Settlement near Fort Rosalie— Limits of Louisiana ac-
cording to Le Page— Climate— The river St. Louis — Le Page goes to New
Biloxi — Explorations in the interior — Tribute to St. Denis — Boats of the
natives— List of the Indian tribes — Le Page meets Father Charlevoix— His
departure in 1734.

HE " Journal Historique," already
referred to, which is our chief guide
for the early events in our history,
gives but meager and uninteresting
details about the hardships of the
colonists for several years. In June,
1702, the Spaniards at Pensacola

50

no*] DEATH OF TONTY 51

begged for provisions, which Bienville sent to them;
and in June, 1703, they came, in their turn, to the help
of the French colony threatened with famine. On July
24, 1704, the Pelican arrived with supplies and seventy-
five soldiers, together with the curate de la Vente, four
families of artisans, and two Gray sisters who had in
charge twenty-three young girls sent as wives for the
colonists. The girls, the minister wrote, " were reared
in virtue and piety, and know how to work." They did
not remain long unmarried.

Bienville and his men had to contend not only against
famine but also against disease, fever especially, and
against the Indians. Several expeditions had to be fitted
out against various tribes, and great tact had to be used
in dealing with the Choctaws and the Chickasaws. The
former were generally friendly to the French, but the
latter became their mortal enemies. The Mongoulachas
were destroyed by their former friends, the Bayagoulas,
and the latter were nearly all massacred by the Tensas,
to whom they had given hospitality. In September, 1704,
an epidemic, supposed to be yellow fever, broke out, and
thirty-five persons died, among whom was the gallant
Tonty, La Salle's devoted friend, the most chivalric of
the explorers of America.

According to a report 1 dated August 31, 1704, from
Fort Louis of Mobile, the situation of the colony was as
follows: " 180 men bearing arms; 27 French families,
which have only 3 little girls and 7 young boys from
1 to 10 years; 6 young savage boys, slaves, from 12 to 18
years; 5 young savage girls, slaves, from 15 to 20 years;

52 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [noe

4 ecclesiastics (1 Jesuit and 3 priests) ; 190 arpents of
ground, which form the inclosure of the town ; 80 wooden
houses of one story, covered with palmetto leaves or
straw, built on streets drawn with a tow-line; 9 oxen, of
which 5 belong to the King; 14 cows; 4 bulls, of which 1
belongs to the King; 5 calves, 100 hogs, 3 goats, 400
chickens, which the commissary has preserved carefully
for breeding."

The following census was copied by the writer at the
Ministry of the Colonies in 1900, and is very interesting,
as it gives the names of the inhabitants at that time :

Year 1706.

Louisiana. — Enumeration of the families and inhabitants who
are in Louisiana according to the census which has been made of
them on August 1, 1706.

Number of persons.

M. de La Salle, his wife and 4 children 6

Guillaume Broutin and his wife 2

Jean Roy, his wife and 2 children 4

Jean La Loire, his wife and 1 child 3

Jean Le Camp has the first male child born in Louisiana 2 . .2

Francois May, his wife and 2 children 4

Nicolas Lafreniere, bachelor 1

Francois Trudeau, his wife and 1 child 3

Etienne Bruille, his wife and 1 child 3

Mile. Le Sueur, widow, came from Canada with 3 daughters

and 1 boy 5

Mile. Boissenaud, unmarried 1

Gabrielle Bonnot, crazy, her husband has deserted .... 1

Michel Risbe 1

Laurent Clostiny and 1 child 2

,;t)S J DARTAGUETTE 53

Numl>er of persons.

The Sieur Barran and his wife 2

Andre Renaud, Ills wife and a child 3

Gilbert Dardenne, his wife and a child 3

Pierre Brossard, his wife and 1 child 3

Pierre Allin, his wife and 1 child 3

Jean Bonobonnoire, his wife and 1 child 3

Antoine Ilinarre, his wife and 1 child 3

Claude Trcpanie, his wife and 1 child 3

Jean Coulomb, his wife and 2 children 4

Joseph Penigaud, his wife 2

Jean Sossie, a wife and 2 children 4

Marie Mercier, unmarried 1

Marie Crisot, midwife 1

Jean Louis Minuity, his wife and 2 children 4

Anne Perro, widow, with 4 children 5

Total, 82

Cattle. — 35 cows, including 12 heifers; 5 bulls; 6 oxen, of
which 4 belong to the King; total, 46.

Done at fort Louis of Louisiana, August 1, 1706.

Bienville. De La Salle.

The struggle for existence continued from 1704 to
1708, and in that year Bienville's enemies appeared to be
successful in their attacks against him. In February,
1708, the news reached the colony that a new governor,
De Muys, had been sent to supersede Bienville, but had
died at Havana. Diron d Artaguette, the new intendant
(commissaire ordonnateur) , arrived at Dauphine Island
on February 10, 1708. He had received orders to inves-
tigate the conduct of the officials, and the minister had
even prejudged the case by sending an order for the

54 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [mo

arrest of Bienville, adding, however, that this was
not to be done if he was found innocent. Bienville
complained that he was not informed of the charges
against him, and wished to return to France by the
Renommec. The commander of that vessel refused
to take him on board because, De Muys having died,
Bienville was still governor. D'Artaguette sent later
a communication to the French minister, by which he
completely exonerated Bienville of all charges against
him. He saw that the young Canadian had done the
best he could with the means at his disposal, and that he
was popular with the colonists and with the Indians.
Bienville knew perfectly the customs of the latter, and
spoke several Indian languages.

D'Artaguette remained in Louisiana until 1711; he
was a man of sound judgment, and advocated with Bien-
ville an establishment on the Mississippi to replace the
fort that had been abandoned in 1705. D'Artaguette
suggested a place, which is probably now the Gentilly
Ridge. During the intendant's stay in the colony, the
distress of the inhabitants was very great, and in 1710
Bienville allowed some of his men to go to live among the
savages, as he was not able to provide for them. This
seems strange, if we believe Commissary La Salle's
report, 3 made on August 12, 1708, in which he gives
the population as composed of a garrison of 122 persons,
— including priests, workmen, and boys, — 157 inhabi-
tants, — men, women and children, — besides 60 wander-
ing Canadians and 80 Indian slaves, and reports 1400
hogs, 2000 chickens, and about 100 heads of cattle.

1710] PENICAUT 55

Let us now return to our friend Penicaut, the literary
carpenter. He calls attention to the moss on the trees,
and says that the French called it " Spanish beard "
(barbe a I'Espagnolc), and the Spaniards "French
wig" (pemtque a la Fran false). In 1704 Penicaut
had spent some time among the Natchez, of whom he
gives an interesting description. In 1710 he resolved to
go among the Colapissas and the Natchitoches on the
banks of Lake Pontchartrain. Twelve young men set
out in two canoes, carrying with them a kettle and pro-
visions for three days. They killed a quantity of game
on the way, and in eight days arrived at the villages of
their savage friends. They were cordially received, their
game was cooked for them, and at night the Indians be-
gan to dance in honor of their guests. What was the
surprise of the young warriors and squaws when they
heard one of the Frenchmen, named Picard, play the
violin. Carried away by their enthusiasm, the Indians
jumped about wildly, until two of the white men danced
a minuet which delighted their hosts. Picard, the fiddler,
resided with the chief of the Colapissas, while Penicaut
enjoyed the hospitality of the Natchitoches chief, who
had two beautiful daughters, Oulchogonime, the " Good
Girl " in their language, and Oulchil, the " Beautiful
Weaver." The French spent the winter with the Indi-
ans, hunting and fishing with them, and teaching the
young damsels the stately dances of Louis XIV's court.
Penicaut says that on his return from the hunt in winter,
he used to sit by the fire and teach the two daughters
of his host to speak French. " They nearly made me

56 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ms

die with laughter," says he, " with their savage pronun-
ciation, which comes only from the throat, while French
is spoken simply with the tongue, without being gut-
tural." The young carpenter must be reckoned the ear-
liest teacher of French in Louisiana. It is a pity that he
did not stay long enough among the Colapissas and
Natchitoches to complete the course in physiological pho-
netics begun so auspiciously. A little later the Natchi-
toches were taken back to their former lands on Red
River, and Penicaut was fortunate enough to protect
from the wrath of the Colapissas the father of his charm-
ing pupils.

In 1712 the colony of Louisiana — or Mississippi, as it
was often called — was ceded by Louis XIV to a wealthy
merchant named Antoine Crozat. The population was
composed of four hundred persons, including twenty
negroes. The progress of Louisiana had been very slow,
and the following extract from Judge Martin's history 4
admirably explains the slow growth:

The coast of the sea abounded with fish; the lagoons near
Mobile River were covered with water-fowl; the forests teemed
with deer, the prairies with buffalo, and the air with wild tur-
keys. By cutting down the lofty pine trees around the fort, the
colonists would have uncovered a soil abundantly producing corn
and pease. By abandoning the posts on the Mississippi, on Ship
and Dauphine Islands and at the Biloxi, the necessary military
duties would have left a considerable number of individuals to
the labors of tillage, especially if prudence had spared frequent
divisions of them to travel thousands of miles in quest of ochres
and minerals or in the discovery of distant land, while that which
was occupied was suffered to remain unproductive. Thus, in the

ni9] GRANT TO CROZAT 57

concerns of communities as in those of individuals, immediate, real
and secure advantages are foregone for distant, dubious and often
visionary ones.

As we have already said, Louisiana was granted to
Crozat, 5 on September 14, 1712, for fifteen years, with ex-
clusive right of trade. The exhausted condition of
France, brought about by the War of the Spanish Suc-
cession, was the only excuse for the surrender of a whole
province to one man. Crozat, however, seems to have
done all in his power to make the colony prosper. It
was naturally to his interest to do so. In May, 1713, the
Baron de Lafosse arrived with supplies for the colonists
and merchandise for Crozat. Among the passengers
was Lamothe Cadillac, who had been appointed governor
of the colony. Bienville was named " commandant of the
Mississippi and its tributaries," and was second in com-
mand.

In the French manuscripts of the Mississippi Valley,
the letters patent to Crozat are given in full, but Judge
Martin, in his " History of Louisiana," has given such a
clear abstract of the grant that we shall reproduce it
here:

Crozat's charter bears date the twenty-sixth 8 of September,
1712. Its preamble states that the attention the King has always
given to the interests and commerce of his subjects, induced him,
nowithstanding the almost continual wars he was obliged to sustain
since the beginning of his reign, to seek every opportunity of
increasing and extending the trade of his colonies in America;
that, accordingly, he had in 1683 given orders for exploring the
territory on the northern continent, between New France and New

58 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ins

Mexico; and La Salle had succeeded so far as to leave no doubt-
as to the facility of opening a communication between Canada and
the Gulf of Mexico, through the large rivers that flow in the inter-
mediate space ; which had induced the King, immediately after
the peace of Ryswick, to send thither a colony and maintain a
garrison, to keep up the possession, taken in 1683, of the terri-
tory on the Gulf, between Carolina on the east and Old and New
Mexico on the west. But, war having broken out soon afterward
in Europe, he had not been able to draw from this colony the
advantages he had anticipated, because the merchants of the king-
dom engaged in maritime commerce had relations and concerns
in the other French colonies, which they could not relinquish.

The King declares that, on the report made to him of the situa-
tion of the territory now known as the province of Louisiana,
he has determined to establish there a commerce, which will be
very beneficial to France, it being now necessary to seek in foreign
countries many articles of commerce which may be obtained there,
for merchandise of the growth or manufacture of the kingdom.

He accordingly grants to Crozat the exclusive commerce of all
the territory possessed by the Crown, between Old and New
Mexico, and Carolina, and all the settlements, ports, roads, and
rivers therein — principally the port and road of Dauphine Island,
before called Massacre Island, the river St. Louis (previously
called the Mississippi), from the sea to the Illinois, the river
St. Philip (before called the Missouri), the river St. Jerome
(before called the Wabash), with all the land, lakes, and rivers
mediately or immediately flowing into any part of the river St.
Louis or Mississippi.

The territory thus described is to be and remain included under
the style of government of Louisiana, and to be a dependence of
the government of New France, to which it is to be subordinate.
The King's territory, beyond the Illinois, is to be and continues
part of the government of New France, to which it is annexed;
and he reserves to himself the faculty of enlarging that of
Louisiana.

1712] LETTERS PATENT TO CROZAT 59

The right is given to the grantee to export from France into
Louisiana all kinds of goods, wares, and merchandise during fif-
teen years, and to carry on there such a commerce as he may
think fit. All persons, natural or corporate, are inhibited from
trading there, under the pain of confiscation of their goods, wares,
merchandise and vessels ; and the officers of the King are com-
manded to assist the grantee, his agents and factors, in seizing
them.

Permission is given to open and work mines, and to export the
ore to France during fifteen years. The property of all the mines
he may discover and work is given to him ; yielding to the King
the fourth part of the gold and silver, to be delivered in France,
at the cost of the grantee, but at the risk of the King, and the
tenth part of all other metals. He may search for precious stones
and pearls, yielding to the King one-fifth of them, in the same
manner as gold and silver. Provision is made for the re-union to
the King's domain of such mines as may cease during three years
to be worked.

Liberty is given to the grantee to sell to the French and Indians
of Louisiana such goods, wares and merchandise as he may import,
to the exclusion of all others without his express and written order.
He is allowed to purchase and export to France hides, skins and
peltries. But, to favor the trade of Canada, he is forbidden to
purchase beaver skins or to export them to France or elsewhere.

The absolute property, in fee simple, is vested in him of all
the establishments and manufactures he may make in silk, indigo,
wool and leather, and all the land he may cultivate, with all
buildings, etc. ; he taking from the Governor and Intendant grants,
which are to become void on the land ceasing to be improved.

The laws, edicts and ordinances of the realm, and the custom
of Paris, are extended to Louisiana.

The obligation is imposed on the grantee to send yearly two
vessels from France to Louisiana, in each of which he is to trans-
port two boys or girls, and the King may ship free from freight
twenty-five tons of provisions, ammunition, etc., for the use of

GO A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA pm

the colony, — and more, paying freight ; and passage is lo be
afforded to the King's officers and soldiers for a fixed compensation.

One hundred quintals of powder are to be furnished annually
to the grantee, out of the King's stores, at cost.

An exemption from duties on the grantee's goods, wares and
merchandise, imported to or exported from Louisiana, is allowed.

The King promises to permit, if he thinks it proper, the im-
portation of foreign goods to Louisiana, on the application of
the grantee, and the production of his invoices, etc.

The use is given to him of the boats, pirogues and canoes be-
longing to the King, for loading and unloading ; he keeping and
returning them in good order at the expiration of his grant.

The faculty is allowed him to send annually a vessel to Guinea,
for negroes, whom he may sell in Louisiana, to the exclusion of
all others.

After the expiration of nine years the grantee is to pay the
field officers and garrison kept in Louisiana, and on the occurrence
of vacancies commissions are to be granted to officers presented
by the grantee, if approved.

The expenses of the King for the salaries of his officers in
Louisiana were fixed at the annual sum of ten thousand dollars.
It was to be paid to Crozat in France, and the drafts of the com-
missary ordonnateur were to be paid in Crozat's stores, in cash
or in goods, with an advance of fifty per cent. Sales in all other
cases were to be made, in these stores, at an advance of one hun-
dred per cent.

Lamothe Cadillac was the founder of Detroit, and had
been a favorite of Frontenac. He was a man of courage
and ability, and had been a successful pioneer, but his
career in Louisiana was a failure. His intendant, Duclos,
became a friend of Bienville, and there was discord, as
at the time of Nicolas de La Salle. The governor sent
gloomy reports about everything in the settlement, and

1716] CUSTOMS OF THE NATCHEZ 61

had visions of mineral wealth continually before his eyes.
Nothing of great importance occurred during his ad-
ministration, except the first Natchez war in 1716. We
may mention, however, the expeditions of St. Denis to
Mexico in 1714 and 1716, during which he founded Nat-
chitoches in 1715. Penicaut has related the romance of
the marriage of St. Denis with a noble Mexican lady;
but as our friend, the carpenter, heard the story from
Jalot, St. Denis's valet, and wrote it several years later,
we may believe that the events were colored by his im-
agination. The adventures of Juchereau de St. Denis 7
were wonderful ; but that officer was, nevertheless, a brave
and capable man, who rendered great services to the
colony.

Le Page du Pratz and Penicaut have given descrip-
tions of the Natchez, and the latter and Richebourg wrote
an account of the first trouble with them. We shall fol-
low here Penicaut's relation. The village of the Natchez
was the finest in Louisiana, and their country was de-
lightful. The Indians of that tribe, both men and wo-
men, were well made and very cleanly. Their chief was
called the Great Sun, and inheritance of that title was
in the female fine. They had a temple in which a fire
was burning continually to represent the sun, which they
adored. Whenever a Great Sun died, or a female Sun,
or any of the inferior Suns, the wife or the husband was
strangled, together with the nearest relatives of the de-
ceased. Sometimes little children were sacrificed by their
parents.

The Natchez murdered five Frenchmen, and Bienville

62 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [im

was sent to punish them. When he arrived among the
Tunicas, near the Natchez country, he built a fort and
sent a lieutenant and twenty men to tell the Natchez
chiefs that he wished to see them. Twenty-eight warriors
came to see Bienville, and when they offered him the calu-
met he refused, saying that he wanted the head of the
chief of the White Earth. He then made the chiefs
prisoners. The Great Sun sent the head of a man, but
it was not the one Bienville wanted. The commander
was informed that among his prisoners were four of
the men who had murdered the Frenchmen, and Bienville
had their heads broken with sticks. Among them was a
wicked chief called " the Bearded." Peace was after-
ward made with the Natchez, and Fort Rosalie was built
in their country.

Cadillac was much shocked at what he called Bien-
ville's treachery and cruelty, and we must agree with him
to a certain extent. Bienville's only excuse was that he
was asked to do a thing that was impossible — to attack
the Natchez, twelve hundred strong, with a force of one
hundred men. The Indians were so treacherous that Bien-
ville thought he might treat them as they often treated
the French when they had the opportunity. This is, how-
ever, not a good excuse, and Bienville should rather have
risked his life and that of his men than have used deceit
in his dealings with his savage foes.

Crozat did not approve of Lamothe Cadillac's admin-
istration, and he was removed from office in the autumn
of 1716. Bienville was to be in command until the arrival
of De l'Epinay, Cadillac's successor. The new governor

in?] EARLY SETTLEMENTS 63

■ arrived in the colony on March 9, 1717, accompanied
by Hubert as intendant or commissaire ordonnateur.
Strange to say, Ue l'Epinay and his intendant agreed per-
fectly well, but discord reigned, nevertheless, in the col-
ony. Bienville had received the cross of St. Louis, but
he was disappointed at not being appointed governor,
and he and his friends formed a party in opposition to
De l'Epinay and Hubert.

The colony, at that time, contained " seven hundred
souls, of all ages, sexes, and colors." " The settlements,"
says Monette, 8 " increased slowly, and were confined
chiefly to the river and bay of Mobile, and other parts
of the coast westward from Biloxi. Two small settle-
ments had been commenced on Red River, near Natchi-
toches, and at Alexandria." ..." Several small forts
had been erected. Among them was the one on the
Coosa River, called Fort Toulouse, and the other, at
Natchez, known as Fort Rosalie." Fort Louis of Mobile,
established in January, 1702, on the river Mobile, fifty-
four miles from the sea, had been abandoned in March,
1710, on account of an inundation, and the fort, called
Fort Louis at first and Conde afterward, 9 was removed
to the present site of the city of Mobile.

In March, 1717, three companies of infantry arrived
in the colony, and fifty settlers, among whom was Du-
breuil, who, a little later, became the richest planter in
Louisiana. D'Artaguette, a son of the former intendant,
arrived also at that time.

In August, 1717, Crozat surrendered his charter to
the Regent of France, who accepted it and made a grant

/'

64 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [mi

of the colony to the Mississippi or Western Company, -
directed then hy the celebrated Scotchman, John Law.
Louis XIV had died in 1715, and had been succeeded by
his great-grandson, Louis XV, under the regency of
Philip, Duke of Orleans, nephew of the late King. Law's
financial plan was good and inaugurated the system of
credit resting on the emission of notes and bonds. Un-
fortunately, there was not sufficient security to represent
the value of the notes, and although the plan was ap-
parently successful at first, it soon failed. Speculation
ran high for a time in the Rue Quincampoix; but the
notes became valueless, and great changes in fortunes
took place in France. John Law was born in Edinburgh
in 1671 ; his father was a wealthy goldsmith, and his fam-
ily was descended from the celebrated house of Argyle.
He devoted himself at an early age to games of chance
and financial questions. At the age of twenty-four he
was condemned to death for a duel occasioned by a love
affair, but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment
for life. He succeeded in escaping, left England, and
wandered over Europe for several years, gambling and
everywhere proposing a new system of credit. In 1716
the Regent of France, Philip of Ox-leans, accepted Law's
system by authorizing the creation of a bank, to which
was added in 1717 a great colonizing scheme. The Re-
gent had been at first only the protector of the bank, but
in December, 1718, the institution was declared a royal
or state institution. There were soon extravagant emis-
sions of bank-notes, and they became valueless as well
as the bonds or stocks. The bank was closed, but the

' ^HMH

ni7] THE WESTERN COMPANY 65

Company of the West, or of the Mississippi, survived
under the name of the Company of the Indies. Law left
France in December, 1720. 1 " " He had loyally thrown
his personal fortune into the system; he entered France
rich ; he left it ruined. He died poor in Venice in 1729.
He had had, in his ideas, a mixture of new truths and of
dangerous errors ; but he had wished sincerely the public
good. He had introduced, in the different branches of
the administration, excellent reforms, of which a part
survived." Law's system is sometimes called the " Mis-
sissippi Bubble."

The following is an abstract of the charter of the
Western Company, given by Judge Martin in his " His-
tory of Louisiana ":

The charter of the new corporation was registered in the Parlia-
ment of Paris on the sixth 11 of September, 1717. It is to be dis-
tinguished by the style of the Western Company, and all the
King's subjects, as well as corporate bodies and aliens, are allowed
to take shares in it.

The exclusive commerce of Louisiana is granted to it for twenty-
five years ; with the right, also exclusive, of purchasing beaver
skins from the inhabitants of Canada, from the first of January,
1718, until the last day of the year 1742; and the monarch re-
serves to himself the faculty of settling, on information to be ob-
tained from Canada, the number of skins the Company shall be
bound to receive annually from the inhabitants, and the price to
be paid therefor.

All the other subjects of the King arc prohibited from trading
to Louisiana, under penalty of the confiscation of their merchandise
and vessels ; but this is not intended to prevent the inhabitants
from trading among themselves or with the Indians. It is like-

66 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [hit

wise prohibited to any but the Company to purchase, during the
same period, beaver skins in Canada for exportation, under penalty
of the forfeiture of the skins, and of the vessels in which they
may be shipped, but the trade in these skins is to continue as
heretofore in the interior.

The land, coasts, harbors and islands in Louisiana are granted
to the Company, as they were to Crozat, it doing faith and
homage to the King, and furnishing a crown of gold of the weight
of thirty marks at each mutation of the sovereignty.

It is authorized to make treaties with the Indians, and to declare
and prosecute war against them in case of insult.

The property of all mines it may open and work is granted
to it, without the payment of any duty whatsoever.

The faculty is given to grant land, even allodially, to erect
forts, and levy troops and recruits even in the kingdom, procur-
ing the King's commission for this purpose.

It is authorized to nominate governors and the officers com-
manding the troops, who are to be presented by the directors and
commissioned by the King, and removable by the Company. Pro-
visional commissions may, in case of necessity, be granted, to be
valid during six months, or until the royal commission arrive.

The directors and all officers are to take an oath of fidelity to
the King.

All civil suits to which the Company may be a party are to be
determined by the consular jurisdiction of the city of Paris, the
sentences of which under a fixed sum are to be in the last resort ;
those above are to be provisorily executed notwithstanding, but
without prejudice of the appeal, which is to be brought before
the Parliament of Paris. Criminal jurisdiction is not to draw
with it that of the civil matter.

The King promises not to grant any letter of dispensation or
respite to any debtor of the Company ; and he assures it of the
protection of his name, against any foreign nation injuring the
Company.

French vessels and crews alone are to be employed by it, and

1717] THE WESTERN COMPANY 67

it is to bring the produce of Louisiana into the ports of the king-
dom. All goods in its vessels are to be presumed its property,
unless it be shown they were shipped with its license.

Subjects of the King removing to Louisiana arc to preserve
their national character, and their children (and those of European
parents professing the Roman Catholic religion) born there are
to be considered as natural-born subjects.

During the continuance of the charter, the inhabitants of
Louisiana are exempted from any tax or imposition, and the Com-
pany's goods from duty.

With the view of encouraging it to build vessels in Louisiana,
a gratification is to be paid on the arrival of each of them in
France.

Four hundred quintals of powder are to be delivered annually
to the Company, out of the royal magazines, at cost.

The stock is divided into shares of five hundred livres each
(about one hundred dollars). Their number is not limited; but
the Company is authorized to close the subscription at discretion.
The shares of aliens are exempted from the " droit d'aubaine "
and confiscation in case of war.

Holders are to have a vote for every fifty shares. The affairs
of the Company, during the first years, are to be managed by
directors appointed by the King, and afterward by others, ap-
pointed triennially by the stockholders.

The King gives to the Company all the forts, magazines, guns,
ammunitions, vessels, boats, provisions, etc., in Louisiana, with all
the merchandise surrendered by Crozat.

It is to build churches and provide clergymen; Louisiana is
to remain part of the diocese of Quebec. It engages to bring in,
during its privilege, six thousand white persons and three thou-
sand negroes; but it is stipulated it shall not bring any person
from another colony without the license of the Governor.

By an edict in May, 1719, 12 the Companies of the East
Indies and of China were united to the Western Com-

68 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ms

pany, and by Article 12 it was stipulated that the name
henceforth would be the Company of the Indies.

On February 9, 1718, three ships arrived at Dauphine
Island with troops, settlers, and provisions, and with
Bienville's appointment as commandant-general or gov-
ernor, and Hubert's as director-general. As soon as
Bienville was again at the head of the colony, he deter-
mined to effect a permanent settlement on the Mississippi
River. In February, 1718, 13 he chose a site thirty leagues
from the sea, on account of communication with Lake
Pontchartrain by Bayou St. John, and left there fifty
persons to clear the ground and construct some houses.
The future town was named New Orleans, 14 in honor
of Philip of Orleans, Regent of France. It was des-
tined to become, after many vicissitudes, the metropolis
of the Southern States of the American Union.

Bienville was in favor of transferring the seat of the
colony to the new establishment ; but the majority of the
members of the Superior Council were of opinion that the
sea-coast should not be abandoned, and an establishment
was made in December, 1719, on the west shore of the
bay of Biloxi, at the entrance of the bay, on the point
opposite Deer Island. This was called Fort Louis, or
New Biloxi, to distinguish it from Iberville's original set-
tlement, Old Biloxi, which was accidentally burned to the
ground in 1719. The Superior Council, 15 in 1719, was,
in reality, a court of justice, and the members were:
Bienville, governor; Hubert, intendant; Boisb riant and
Chateaugue, lieutenants of the King; and Villardo,
L'Archambault, and Legac. The attorney-general was

i7i9j WAR WITH SPAIN 69

Cartier tie Baume, and Couture was secretary of the
Council.

On April 19, 1719, Serigny, Bienville's brother, arrived
in Louisiana, with orders to inspect the coast and make
soundings, and assist Bienville. He brought the news of
a declaration of war between France and Spain. This
is a curious historical fact, when we consider the im-
mense sacrifices made by Louis XIV to place his grand-
son on the throne of Spain, and his supposed saying:
" My son, there are no longer any Pyrenees." The treaty
of Utrecht, which put an end to the War of the Spanish
Succession, was signed in 1713, and only* six years later
Philip V, or rather Alberoni, his minister, was waging
war against Philip's nephew, Louis XV. In that war
Serigny distinguished himself, and among the ship cap-
tains that took part in the conflict we see the name of
De Grieux, who commanded the Comtc de Toulouse.

There were expeditions against Pensacola and against
Dauphine Island, which have been related in a most in-
teresting manner by Le Page du Pratz and by Benard
de La Harpe, both of whom had arrived in Louisiana in
1718. Pensacola was captured by the French, recap-
tured by the Spaniards, taken a second time by the
French, and returned to Spain in 1723.

In December, 1719, Bienville received from the Kas-
kaskias an interesting letter from Dutisne, relating a
journey to the west as far as the lands of the Osages and
of the Panionassas. On January 26, 1720, Benard de La
Harpe arrived from a long and eventful journey, after
establishing a post in the country of the Cadodaquious on

70 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [im

the Red River, " who were," says he, " established two
leagues below the Nassonites, and the Natsoos and the
Natchitoches three leagues above, to the right of the
river." The colony was at last progressing, for, in spite
of the war with Spain, the Company of the Indies sent
a large number of settlers and supplies; however, the in-
habitants were granted no freedom of trade, and little
individual freedom, as they could not leave the colony
without the consent of the officers of the Company. On
January 1, 1721, 16 the population of the colony was about
six thousand persons, including about six hundred
negroes.

The settlement sustained a heavy blow in 1720, when
Law's bank and his financial scheme collapsed. About
two hundred and fifty Germans who had been sent to
Law's concession in Arkansas were reduced to great dis-
tress, and in 1723 received grants of land on the coast of
the Mississippi and founded the German Coast, now St.
Charles and St. John Parishes. Their commandant was
the Chevalier d'Arensbourg, a Swedish officer.

In a despatch dated April 20, 1722, Bienville called at-
tention to the disadvantages of the establishment at Bi-
loxi. The ships coming from France had to be unloaded
at Ship Island, and the freight taken to Biloxi at great
expense, while the ships might enter the Mississippi and
be unloaded within two days. On January 25, 1723, the
engineer Pauger 1T made an important report 1S about the
mouth of the river, in which he said that, " On his
first visit, he found that ships drawing fourteen, fifteen
feet of water, and even more, could easily pass." " He

17»] NEW ORLEANS THE CAPITAL 71

regretted that, in spite of Bienville's representations, the
Company persisted in sending its ships to Biloxi." He
added that " it was extremely painful and costly for the
inhabitants on the river, whose number must increase
every day, considering the fertility of the lands, to go
to Biloxi to get their negroes and all that they may
need.'' He recommended, in order to deepen the chan-
nel, a system of jetties very similar to that of Captain
James B. Eads, which was successfully operated a cen-
tury and a half later.

Bienville, sustained by Pauger, succeeded in having
the stores of the Company transferred from Biloxi to
New Orleans in 1722, and the latter town became the
capital of the colony. On July 1, 1722, the ship Aventu-
rier, with Blondel de la Tour, chief engineer and lieu-
tenant-general, and Pauger, had passed over the bar of
the Mississippi, and this had proved that New Orleans
could be made a seaport. Bienville established his resi-
dence there in August, 1722. La Tour's report of his ex-
pedition, dated New Orleans, August 30, 1722, is an im-
portant and interesting document. 19 He says he found
at least fourteen feet of water in the channel, and adds:
" In going up the river, I examined the best places to
establish New Orleans. I did not find a better situation
than the place where it is ; not only is the land higher, but
it is near a bayou, which is a little river, which falls into
Lake Pontchartrain, through which one can at all times
communicate with the New Biloxi, Mobile, and other
ports, more easily than by the mouth of the river." La
Tour says also that he found the country beautiful, and

72 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA 11722

that everything that grows in the islands would grow
on the banks of the Mississippi, except the sugar-cane,
on account of the frosts. French wheat could also be
cultivated as soon as the land was sufficiently cleared.
We see that La Tour was not a good prophet with re-
gard to sugar-cane and wheat. Cane, which he said
could not grow, has enriched Louisiana, and wheat never
has been grown there to advantage.

On September 11, 1723, a hurricane began, which
lasted until the 16th. It did great harm to the crops
of rice, peas, and corn, and destroyed the greater part
of the houses at New Orleans. The store-house built
by the engineer Pauger was spared, but the one at Fort
Louis was destroyed, with a great quantity of goods, " to
the great content of the storekeepers," says the " Journal
Historique," " as this accident released them from the
obligation of rendering their accounts." The comman-
dant of the post of New Orleans, before the seat of gov-
ernment was transferred to that place, was De Riche-
bourg, who has left us a narrative of events at that time.
The other commandants of posts were Marigny de Man-
deville, De la Harpe, De Loubois, De Saint Denis, De
la Marque, Marchand, and De Bournion. Boisbriant
and Chateaugue were lieutenants of the King — that is
to say, second and third in command. The province was
divided into nine districts or quarters: New Orleans,
Biloxi, Mobile, Alibamons, Natchez, Yazoux or Yazoos,
Natchitoches, Arkansas, and Illinois. The earliest con-
cessions established were those of Le Blanc at Yazoux,
Coly at Natchez, Law at Arkansas, DArtaguette at

was] FATHER CHARLEVOIX'S LETTER 73

Baton Rouge, Paris Duverney at Pointe Coupee, Ville-
mont at Blaek River, Cleracs at Natchez, and Chaumont
at Pascagoulas.

The following letter, written by Father Charlevoix 20
to the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres, is very interesting. It
is dated from New Orleans, January 10, 1722.

I am at length arrived in that famous city, which has been
called la Nouvellc Orleans. Those who gave it that name believed
that Orleans is of the feminine gender; but what does it matter?
the custom is established, and it is above the rules of grammar.
This city is the first that one of the greatest rivers in the world
has seen raised on its banks. If the eight hundred fine houses,
and the five parishes which the " Mercure " gave it two years ago,
are reduced to-day to about one hundred huts, placed without much
order ; to a large store, built of wood ; to two or three houses which
would not adorn a village in France ; and to half of a poor store,
which was kindly lent to the lord, and of which he had hardly taken
possession when they wished to make him leave it, to lodge him
under a tent, what pleasure on another side to see increasing in-
sensibly this future capital of a beautiful and vast country, and
to be able to say, not sighing, like Virgil's hero while speaking
of his dear country consumed by the flames, " and the fields where
was the city of Troy," but full of the best grounded hope, this
wild and desert place, which the reeds and trees still cover almost
entirely, will be one day, and perhaps that day is not distant, an
opulent city and the metropolis of a great and rich colony.

You will ask me, Madam, on what I base this hope? I base
it on the situation of this town thirty-three leagues from the sea,
and on the bank of a navigable river, which one can ascend to
this place in twenty-four hours; on the fertility of its soil; on
the mildness and goodness of its climate, at a latitude of thirty
degrees north ; on the industry of its inhabitants ; on the proximity
of Mexico, where one can go in two weeks by sea; on that of

74 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [wsb

Havana, which is still closer, of the most beautiful islands of
America, and of the English colonies. Is anything more needed
to render a city flourishing? Rome and Paris did not have such
important beginnings, were not built under such favorable
auspices, and their founders did not meet on the Seine and on the
Tiber the advantages which we have met on the Mississippi, com-
pared with which these two rivers are only brooks.

Father Charlevoix seems to have enjoyed the gift of
prophecy when, in 1722, he predicted such a brilliant fu-
ture for New Orleans.

It may be interesting to add to what has been said thus
far of the colony and of New Orleans in their infancy
the description of Louisiana as seen by Le Page du Pratz.
The " History of Louisiana " of Le Page du Pratz is
very interesting and important. It was published in
Paris, in three volumes, in 1758. The author remained
in the colony from 1718 to 1734, and he relates in a
charming manner what he saw and what he heard dur-
ing his stay.

Le Page tells us that he arrived at Massacre Island
(since called Dauphine) on August 25, 1718. The
Company of the West had agreed to transport him, at
their own expense, to the place of his concession, which
was near the town of New Orleans. Bienville, the com-
mandant-general of the colony, was absent when Le
Page arrived at Dauphine Island, having gone to mark
the site of the new town. On his return he complimented
Le Page on the concession which he had chosen, saying
that a farm in the vicinity of a town was better than a
lordly estate in the woods.

1T22] THE CALUMET DANCE 75

The new colonist was anxious to go to his concession,
and Bienville sent him there by way of Lake Pontchar-
train. He gives an interesting description of the islands,
bays, and lakes that he saw, and says that by following
Bayou Tchoupic from Lake Pontchartrain he arrived
at the place where had been the village of the Indians,
called by the French Cola Pissas, but whose real name
was Aquilou Pissas, which means " nation of the men
who see and who hear."

The village of the Indians had been bought by a Ca-
nadian, who received Le Page and his men very hospi-
tably. The newcomer bought an Indian girl to be his
cook, and located his concession on Bayou St. John, half
a league from the future capital of the colony, which
consisted then of only one cabin covered with palmetto
leaves. He was pleased at first with his plantation, as
the land was very fertile; but the place was not health-
ful, on account of inundations, and he resolved to go to
the Natchez country. He remained in New Orleans two
months before leaving for his new establishment, and
saw the presentation of the calumet of peace to Bien-
ville by the Tchitimachas 21 (Chetimachas). There were
twelve men, preceded by the " word-bearer," all splen-
didly adorned. Each man carried a chichicois and agi-
tated it in cadence while singing the song of the calumet,
which the " word-bearer " carried moving also in cadence.
It took them half an hour to go over a distance
of a hundred steps from their pirogues to Bienville's
cabin. The " word-bearer " told the governor: " Here
you are, and I with you." Bienville simply answered,

76 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1722

" Yes." Then all the Indians sat on the ground and
hent their faces on their hands, as if to meditate. After
a moment, the "word-bearer" rose with two men; one
man filled the calumet with tobacco, the other brought
some fire, and the first man lighted the pipe. The " word-
bearer " smoked the calumet, wiped it, and presented it
to Bienville, who smoked also. All the persons present
did the same; the two savages sat down by the present
which they had brought, — deerskins, — and the " word-
bearer " was the only one standing. He was dressed
in beaver-skins. He delivered an address, after which
Bienville replied to him in the language of the savages.
He gave them something to eat, put his hand in that of
the " word-bearer " as a sign of friendship, and sent them
all away contented.

Le Page bought in New Orleans two slaves, a young
negro and his wife, for whom he paid 1320 livres, and
he departed for the Natchez country in a pirogue in
which were his negro slaves and his Indian slave. His
food on the journey consisted of the wild ducks and
geese that he killed. His slaves added to their diet tails
of alligators, which were plentiful in the river. At the
Tonicas Father Davion celebrated mass for the travelers.
It was he who had given his name to the bluff called
Roche a Davion, where, later, Fort Adams was estab-
lished.

At a distance of eighty leagues from New Orleans
was Fort Rosalie, on a bluff, or ecore, two hundred feet
high. At a thousand steps from the fort Le Page bought
from one of the Natchez Indians a cabin and a piece of

1702] LIMITS OF LOUISIANA 77

cleared ground. His men built a cabin near his, and
they were lodged, says he, like the wood-cutters in France
when they are working in the forests. He was soon on
very good terms with the Indians, and was cured of sci-
atica by a jongleur — a medicine-man.

The limits of Louisiana as given by Le Page, are
important. They have often been quoted in boundary
discussions. " Louisiana," says he, " situate in the
northern part of America, is bounded on the south by
the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by Carolina, English col-
ony, and by part of Canada, on the west by New Mexico,
on the north in part by Canada: the rest has no bounda-
ries, and extends as far as the unknown lands bordering
on Hudson Bay. It is given a breadth of about two hun-
dred leagues, between the Spanish and the English set-
tlements, its length is indeterminate, since it is unknown :
however, the source of the river St. Louis will give us
some information on that subject."

The climate of Louisiana, according to Le Page, is
different from that of other countries in the same lati-
tude, the southern part not as hot as in Africa, and the
northern colder than in Europe. At New Orleans the
temperature is about the same as in the province of
Languedoc in France. Life is long and agreeable for
people who do not give themselves up to debauchery, and
men live longer in Louisiana than in France. " The river
St. Louis divides this colony from north to south into
two parts almost equal. The first who discovered it from
Canada, named it the Colbert, to do honor to that great
minister who was then in office; it is named by some

78 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1722

savages of the north Meact-Chassipi, which signifies liter-
ally Old Father of Rivers, out of which the French, who
wish always to Frenchify foreign words, have made Mis-
sissippi; other natives, especially on the lower part of
the river, name it Balhancha; finally the French have
named it River St. Louis." The journey from New Or-
leans to Canada is made hy going up the river St. Louis
as far as the Ouabache River, called by some Ohio ; up
the latter to the Miami River, where there is a portage
of two leagues; then a little river which falls into Lake
Erie, where the pirogue is changed for a bark canoe to
go down the St. Lawrence to Quebec.

The waters Avhich come out of the St. Louis or Missis-
sippi River never go back to the river, as the banks are
raised by the trees and mud that the river carries, and the
land slopes toward the woods. The coast of Louisiana is
bounded on the west by the bay of St. Bernard, where La
Salle landed, and on the east by the Rio Perdido. Lower
Louisiana is alluvial land, and one century is sufficient
to extend Louisiana two leagues toward the sea.

In 1721 Le Page went to New Biloxi, and he says he
never could gviess why they had chosen that place for the
principal establishment of the colony, and why they had
thought of building the capital there. The land is sterile,
and it is exceedingly difficult to unload anything from
the ships, as the water is so shallow near the coast.
While at Biloxi Le Page saw the people sent by Law
to establish his concession at the Arkansas. It was to
be four leagues square, and was erected into a duchy.
There were equipments for a company of dragoons, and

1799] TRIBUTE TO ST. DENIS 79

goods worth more than a million livrcs, and the conces-
sion was to he settled by fifteen hundred persons. But
Law failed, and the Company of the Indies took posses-
sion of all his effects.

Le Page gives a long narrative of his explorations
in the interior of Louisiana, and becomes poetic when he
speaks of the delightful song of the little birds, which
vie with one another at sunset to render thanks to the
Almighty, who has procured their food during the day
and has protected them from the talons of the birds of
prey.

In his description of Louisiana, Le Page speaks of the
post at Natchitoches and pays a beautiful tribute to the
commandant, St. Denis. He says the latter deserved to
be governor of the whole colony, since he was as prudent
an administrator as he was a brave officer. The savages
were devoted to him, and at a sign from him thirty thou-
sand warriors would have assembled to serve under him.
That attachment was surprising, if we consider that
most of the Indians devoted to St. Denis lived in the
country of the Spaniards, who had erected a fort distant
only seven leagues from the French post.

The boats used by the natives were the cajeu, the pi-
rogue, and the canoe. The cajeux were made of cane
tied together, then crossed double; they were used to
cross rivers, as they could be made in a very short time.
The pirogues were made in one block, from the trunks of
trees; and the canoes were made from the bark of the
birch tree. In colonial times all these boats were called
water-carriages.

80 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [»»

The list of the Indian tribes in Louisiana given by Le
Page is interesting and important. In the vicinity of
Mobile was a branch of the great tribe of the Apalaches ;
north of them were the Alibamons ; east of the Alibamons,
the Caouitas, to whose chief Bienville had given the title
of Emperor, which was not recognized by the neighbor-
ing tribes. North of the Alibamons were the Abeikas or
Conchacs, whose neighbors on the east were the Chera-
quis (Cherokees). All these nations and a few smaller
ones had formed an alliance against the Iroquois. The
tribes on the Mobile River were the Chatots, near Fort
Louis of Mobile; the Thomez; the Taensas, who are a
branch of the Natchez and who preserve a perpetual fire
guarded by men; and the Mobilians, near the mouth of
the river. West of Mobile were the Pachca-Ogoulas,
" nation of bread," called by the French Pascagoulas.
North of the latter were the Chat-kas (Choctaws) , called
by the French Chactas, or " flatheads." They were very
numerous, but not very warlike. Different from the
Chat-kas were the warlike Tchicachas (Chickasaws).
Near Lake Pontchartrain, called St. Louis by Le Page,
were the Colapissas. On the east bank of the Missis-
sippi, twenty leagues from New Orleans, were the Ou-
mas; opposite Red River were the Tunicas, whose chief
was so friendly to the French that the King had given
him the title of Brigadier of the Red Armies, and had
sent him a cane with a gold head, and a blue ribbon with
a medal representing on one side the marriage of the
King, and on the other the city of Paris. The great tribe
of the Natchez came next. The tradition was that they

n?3] INDIAN TRIBES 81

had been the most powerful nation in North America,
but in 1720, together with the Grigras and the Thioux
who dwelt among them, they could raise only twelve
hundred warriors. On the Yazoo River were the Ya-
zoux " (Yazoos), the Chactchi-Oumas (the " Red Craw-
fish "), the Tapoussas, the Coroas; and near the Yazoo,
the Oufe-Ogoulas. These five little tribes joined the na-
tion of the Chickasaws after the Natchez massacre. North
of the Ouabache River (Ohio) were the Illinois, com-
prising the tribes of the Tamaroas, the Caskasquias, the
Caoukias, the Pimiteouis, and a few others. The Illinois
were always faithful allies of the French. To the north
were the Renards (Foxes) and the Sioux, who were
known only by reports of the travelers. The tribes west
of the Mississippi were the Ouachas, the Tchitimachas
(Chetimachas), the Atac-Apas (Attakapas)— men-eat-
ers j the Bayoux-Ogoulas (Bayagoulas), the Oque-Lous-
sas, the Avoyels, the Natchitoches, the Cadodaquioux, the
Ouachitas, the Arkansas, the Kappas, the Mitchigamias.
Near the Missouri River were the Osages, the Missouris,
the Canchez, the Othouez, the White Panis, the Black
Panis, the Panimahas, the Aiaouez, and the Padoucas,
who were the most numerous. The Sioux were said to
reside on both sides of the Mississippi.

While Le Page was at New Biloxi in 1721 he met Fa-
ther Charlevoix, and they went to New Orleans together.
The description that our author gives, at a later period,
of the new town is about the same as that in Dumont's
Memoirs. In 1726 Le Page accepted the place of mana-
ger or overseer of the plantation of the Company of the

82

A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

[1726

Indies, which after a few years hecame the plantation
of the King. It was near New Orleans. In 1734 the
government got rid of the plantation, which was said
to cost ten thousand livres a year. Le Page pretends that
the plantation was an economy to the King of fifty thou-
sand livres a year. He returned to France in 1734. His
hook, although written with some prolixity and contain-
ing some extraordinary stories, is one of the most interest-
ing concerning the early history of Louisiana.

CHAPTER V

Abstracts of the most important Royal Orders,

Regulations, and Edicts concerning

Louisiana, from 1719 to 1729

Forbids governors, etc., to possess plantations— Forbids vagabonds and
criminals to be sent to Louisiana— About foreign commerce— About carry-
ing swords— About firing cannon in harbors of colonies— About redemption-
ers— About sailors deserting — About games of chance— Edict concerning
negro slaves, known as the "Black Code"— About killing of cattle— About
opening letters — About landing slaves — About the punishment of desert-
ers—About military crimes and offenses — About exclusion of foreign com-
merce—Regulations for hospitals.

November 7, 1719.

ORBIDS governors, lieutenant-gen-
erals, and intendants in the colony to
possess plantations. They are al-
lowed to have vegetable-gardens.

May 9, 1 720. The King being in-
formed that the Company of the
Indies is in a condition to attend

to the cultivation of the lands of Louisiana, by means
of negroes that it furnishes to the colonists; that, be-
sides, a number of families, French and foreign, offer
to settle in the concessions granted to different in-
dividuals; that the grantees of the concessions refuse
to take charge of the vagabonds and criminals who

83

84 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1720

have been condemned to serve in the colony, because
they are lazy people and of bad morals, less fit to
work than to corrupt the other colonists, and even the
natives, who are a nation gentle, docile, industrious,
laborious, and friendly to the French ; and that the vaga-
bonds and criminals may be more usefully employed in
the other colonies, on account of the larger number of
Frenchmen who inhabit there, — it is ordered that no more
vagabonds, forgers, and criminals be sent to Louisiana,
and the judges are forbidden to condemn any such peo-
ple to be sent to Louisiana.

July 23, 1720. The King, being informed that for-
eign commerce continues in some of his colonies, in spite
of his prohibition, orders all commanders of his vessels
to pursue and capture any vessel, whether French or
foreign, attending to foreign commerce in his colonies of
America, and to take the vessel to the nearest island.
All subjects of His Majesty are permitted to do the
same.

July 23, 1720. Forbids all persons who are not officers
to carry a sword when they reside in the towns of the
colonies. The prohibition does not apply to officers of
merchant vessels.

'April 8, 1721. His Majesty, having been informed
that the captains of merchant vessels fire cannon very
often in the harbors of the colonies, especially of Fort
Royal, and St. Peter of Martinique, when they have
festivals among themselves or when they wish to salute
some persons who go on board their ships, which causes
useless expense to the ship-owners, and occasions often

i78i] REDEMPTIONERS 85

the capture of these vessels, because they do not have
enough powder left to defend themselves against cor-
sairs; being informed also that these salutes, from want
of precaution, cause accidents to the cannoneers; and
that, besides these inconveniences, the volleys fired during
the night serve only to cause alarm in the colonies, — it is
expressly forbidden to fire a single cannon, under any
pretext, in the harbors of the French colonies, unless
as a signal of distress or other necessity, without the ex-
press permission of the officer of the King commanding
in the places where the ships will be anchored, under
penalty of a fine of one hundred livres for the first of-
fense and of double that amount if the offense is re-
peated.

May 20, 1721. An ordinance of November 16, 1716,
relating to redemptioners is re-affirmed. " Vessels, leav-
ing the kingdom for any of the King's American colonies,
were directed to carry thither, if under sixty tons, four,
and if above, six redemptioners, whose period of service
was fixed at three years. They were required to be able-
bodied, between the ages of seventeen and forty, and
in size not under four feet. It was provided that the
redemptioners, whom the captain might not sell, should
be given by the governor to some of the planters who
had not any, and who were to pay their passage." The
ordinance of 1721 allows merchants of the ports that
have permission to trade with the colonies to pay sixty
livres for each redemptioner whom they had to furnish,
if individuals for that purpose were not furnished them
by the government.

86 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1722

December 23, 1721. Orders that sailors who shall be
found in the colonies after the departure of their ships
be imprisoned until they can be sent back to France in
ships that do not have enough sailors.

December 15, 1722. His Majesty having been in-
formed that, in spite of his ordinances concerning games
of chance, several inhabitants and other individuals of
the French islands and colonies of America, even mer-
chants from France, and their agents, play games of
chance, of which the unjust inequality excites frequent
quarrels among the players, gives rise to odious usury,
and causes the ruin of several families, by leading young
men into debauchery, — with the advice of the Duke of
Orleans, Regent, His Majesty expressly forbids all per-
sons,of whatever condition, to play or to allowto be played
in their houses, games of bassette, pharaon, lansquenet,
hoca, quinquenove, beriby, dice, and other games of
chance ; also forbids innkeepers and others to allow gam-
bling in their houses. The penalty was a fine of five hun-
dred livres for the first offense, and more if repeated.
One fourth of the fine was to be paid to the informer, or,
in his default, to public works; one fourth to the near-
est hospital, and the other half to public works. An
ordinance issued by Philip of Orleans against gamblers
is a curious thing. It is also curious to see the names of
the games of chance in 1722.

In March, 1724, the King issued at Versailles an
" Edict concerning the negro slaves in Louisiana."
This is generally known as the " Black Code," which
remained in force in colonial times, and of which some

ir«i] THE BLACK CODE 87

of the provisions were incorporated into the code of
American Lonisiana. The edict, 1 according to the official
certificate of Rossard, clerk of the Superior Council, was
read, recorded, and published in New Orleans on Sep-
tember 10, 1724. The preamble to this edict is given here
in full, to show the forms of such documents.

Louis, by the Grace of God, King of France and of Navarre,
to all present and to come, greeting. The Directors of the Com-
pany of the Indies having represented to us that the Province and
colon}' of Louisiana is considerably established, by a large number
of our subjects, who use slaves for the cultivation of the lands, We
have judged that it behooves our authority and our justice, for the
preservation of this colony, to establish there a law, and certain
rules, to maintain there the discipline of the Catholic Apostolic
and Roman Church, and to order about what concerns the state
and condition of the slaves in the said Islands, 2 and desiring to
provide for this, and to make known to our subjects who inhabit
there and who shall settle there in the future, that although they
inhabit climes infinitely remote, We are always present, by the
extent of our power and by our application to succor them. Actu-
ated by these causes and others, by the advice of our Council,
and by our certain knowledge, full power and Royal authority,
We have said, decreed, and ordered, We say, decree, and order,
wish and it pleases us, the following.

Article I orders that the edict of 1615 be applied to
Louisiana, and that all Jews who may have established
their religion there be expelled within three months, un-
der penalty of confiscation of body and property.

Article II orders that all slaves in the province be
instructed and baptized in the Catholic religion.

88 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [iiu

Article III forbids the exercise of any other religion
than the Catholic.

Article IV forbids the employment of any overseer
who shall not be a Catholic, under penalty of confisca-
tion of the negroes and punishment of the overseer.

Article V orders Sundays and holidays to be regu-
larly observed, and forbids all work by masters or slaves,
under penalty of confiscation of slaves and punishment
of masters. The slaves, however, may be sent marketing.

Article VI forbids marriage of whites with slaves,
and concubinage of whites and manumitted or free-born
blacks with slaves, and imposes penalties.

Article VII orders to be observed, for marriages of
free persons as well as of slaves, the solemnities of the
ordinance of Blois and of the edict of 1639. The con-
sent of the parents of the slave is not necessary, but only
that of the master.

Article VIII forbids curates to celebrate marriages
of slaves without consent of the masters, and forbids mas-
ters to force their slaves to marry against their will.

Article IX enacts that children born from the mar-
riages of slaves shall belong to the master of the mother.

Article X enacts that if the husband be a slave and
the wife a free woman, the children shall be free like their
mother. If the husband be free and the wife a slave, the
children shall be slaves.

Article XI orders that masters shall have baptized
slaves buried in consecrated ground; those who die with-
out being baptized to be buried at night in a neighboring
field.

IW4] THE BLACK CODE 89

Article XII forbids slaves to carry offensive wea-
pons or heavy sticks, under penalty of the whip and
confiscation of the weapons in favor of the person seiz-
ing them. Slaves that are sent hunting by their masters,
and carry notes or known marks, are excepted.

Article XIII forbids slaves belonging to different
masters to assemble in crowds, by day or by night, under
pretext of weddings or other causes, either at one of
their masters or elsewhere, and still less on the highways
or secluded places, under penalty of corporal punish-
ment, which shall not be less than the whip and the fleur-
de-lys ; and in case of repetition of the offense and other
aggravating circumstances, capital punishment may be
applied, at the discretion of the judges. It also com-
mands all subjects of the King, whether officers or not, to
seize and arrest the offenders and conduct them to prison,
although there be no judgment against them.

Article XIV condemns to damages and a fine of
thirty livres for the first time, and double that amount for
repetition of the offense, masters who shall be convicted
of having permitted or tolerated such assemblies.

Article XV forbids slaves to sell commodities, pro-
visions, or produce of any kind, without express written
permission from their masters, or known marks. The
purchasers shall pay a fine of six livres for fruit, vege-
tables, timber, fodder, and seeds, and fifteen hundred
livres for merchandise and clothes. They shall lose the
price of the articles, and shall be prosecuted as receivers
of stolen goods.

Article XVI provides for examination in each mar-

90 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [im

ket of goods brought by the slaves and of the written per-
missions and marks of their masters.

Article XVII orders seizure of goods that are of-
fered for sale by slaves without permission or mark.

Article XVIII orders officers of the Superior Coun-
cil to give their advice about the provisions and the food
to be furnished the slaves. It also forbids masters to
give any kind of brandy in lieu of food and clothing.

Article XIX forbids masters to abstain from feed-
ing and clothing their slaves, by permitting them to work
for their own account on a certain day of the week.

Article XX authorizes slaves to give information
against their masters, if not properly fed or clad, or if
treated inhumanly.

Article XXI orders slaves disabled from working,
by old age, sickness, or otherwise, to be provided for by
their masters, otherwise they shall be sent to the nearest
hospital, to which the masters shall pay eight cents a day
for each slave, and the hospital shall have a lien on the
plantations of the masters.

Article XXII declares that slaves can have no-
thing that does not belong to their masters, in whatever
way acquired.

Article XXIII orders that masters be held respon-
sible for what their slaves have done by their command.

Article XXIV forbids slaves from exercising pub-
lic functions, from serving as arbitrators or experts, from
giving testimony except in default of white people, and
from ever serving as witnesses for or against their mas-
ters.

17*4] THE BLACK CODE 91

Article XXV forbids slaves from being parties to
civil suits or complainants in criminal cases. Their mas-
ters shall act for them in civil cases and demand repara-
tion or punishment for outrages and excesses committed
against them.

Article XXVI orders prosecution of slaves in crim-
inal cases in the same manner as for free persons, with
exceptions hereafter mentioned.

Article XXVII. Any slave who shall have struck
his master, his mistress, or the husband of his mistress,
or their children, so as to produce a bruise or shedding
of blood in the face, shall be put to death.

Article XXVIII. Outrages or acts of violence
against free persons committed by slaves shall be pun-
ished with severity, and even with death if the case re-
quire it.

Article XXIX. Important thefts, even the stealing
of horses, mares, mules, oxen, or cows, committed by
slaves or manumitted persons, shall make the offender
liable to corporal punishment, and even to capital punish-
ment, according to the circumstances.

Article XXX. Thefts of sheep, goats, hogs, poultry,
grain, fodder, peas, beans, or other vegetables and pro-
visions, committed by slaves, shall be punished accord-
ing to the kind of theft, and the judges may sentence
them to be whipped by the public executioner and branded
with the fleur-de-lys.

Article XXXI. Masters shall be bound, besides the
corporal punishment inflicted on their slaves, to repair
the harm done, unless they prefer to abandon the slaves

92 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [itm

to the sufferer, and they shall make this choice within
three days after the conviction of the slaves.

Article XXXII. Any runaway slave who shall con-
tinue to be so for one month from the day his master
shall have denounced him, shall have his ears cut and be
branded with a fleur-de-lys on one shoulder. For a
second offense he shall be hamstrung and branded on the
other shoulder. For a third offense he shall suffer death.

Article XXXIII refers to trials and appeals to the
Superior Council.

Article XXXIV. Freed or free-born negroes who
shall have given refuge to fugitive slaves shall pay thirty
livres for each day of retention, to the masters of the
slaves, and other free persons ten livres a day. If the
freed or free-born negroes are not able to pay the fine,
they shall be reduced to the condition of slaves and sold
as such.

Article XXXV gives permission to make searches
for fugitive slaves.

Article XXXVI. Any slave condemned to death on
the denunciation of his master, who is not accomplice to
the crime, shall be appraised by two of the principal in-
habitants specially appointed by the judge, and the
amount shall be paid to the master. To raise this sum, a
tax shall be laid on every slave.

Article XXXVII. All officers of justice are forbid-
den to receive fees in criminal suits against slaves.

Article XXXVIII forbids the application of the
rack to slaves, under any pretext, on private authority,
or mutilation of a limb, under penalty of confiscation
of the slaves and of criminal prosecution of the masters.

W84] THE BLACK CODE 93

The latter are allowed only, when they believe that their
slaves have deserved it, to put them in irons and to have
them whipped with rods or ropes.

Article XXXIX commands officers of justice to
prosecute masters and overseers who shall have killed or
mutilated slaves, and to punish the murder according to
the atrocity of the circumstances. In case the offense
shall be pardonable, the officers are permitted to pardon
the masters and overseers without being obliged to obtain
letters patent of pardon.

Article XL. Slaves are considered movables, exempt
from seizure under mortgage, to be equally divided
among co-heirs.

Articles XLI and XLII refer to judicial forms
and proceedings.

Article XLIII. Husbands and wives, and their chil-
dren under the age of puberty, shall not be seized and
sold separately when belonging to the same master.

Article XLIV refers to seizure of slaves for debt.

Articles XLV to XLIX refer to certain judicial pro-
ceedings.

Article L. Masters aged twenty-five years shall have
the power to manumit their slaves. As, however, there
may be mercenary masters to set a price on the liberation
of their slaves, which leads the slaves to commit thefts
or deeds of plunder, no person shall be permitted to free
his slaves without obtaining from the Superior Council
a permission to that effect.

Article LI. Slaves appointed by their masters tutors
to their children shall be held as having been set free.

Article LII. All manumitted slaves and all free-

94

A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

[1734

born negroes are prohibited from receiving gifts from
whites.

Article LIII. Manumitted slaves are commanded
to show great respect to their former masters, their wid-
ows and their children, and any injury done them shall
be punished more severely than if it had been done to
any other person. They are exempt, however, from all
duties and services, taxes and fees, which their former
masters might claim from them.

Article LIV. Manumitted slaves shall enjoy the
same rights, privileges, and immunities that are enjoyed
by free-born persons. " It is our pleasure that their
merit in having acquired their freedom shall produce in
their favor, not only with regard to their persons, but
also to their property, the same effects that our other sub-
jects derive from the happy circumstances of their hav-
ing been born free."

Article LV. Fines and confiscations that have no
particular destination are to be paid to the Company of
the Indies, except one third to the nearest hospital.

The edict ends with these words: "For such is our
will."

May 20, 1724. Declares that as, in spite of the decree
of the Superior Council of Louisiana, dated April 29,
1723, forbidding the killing or wounding of cattle, under
penalty of a fine of fifteen hundred livres, it happens
daily that soldiers and vagabonds kill and destroy the
cattle of the planters, and as it is of very great impor-
tance to prevent the destruction of cattle in a colony that
is not entirely established, and to provide, at the same

it,'-] DESERTERS 95

time, the means of multiplying the species, — all persons,
whatever he their rank or condition, are forbidden to
kill or wound cattle belonging to other persons, under
penalty of death. It is also forbidden to any inhabitant
to kill any cows, ewes, and females of domestic animals
necessary to the planters, under a fine of three hundred
livres for the first offense, and six hundred livres and
three months imprisonment if the offense is repeated.

May 20, 1724. Forbids intercepting and opening let-
ters and packages, and imposes a penalty.

July 25, 1724- Forbids captains of slave-ships to sell
or buy any negro before health inspection is made and
permission to land the negro given, under penalty of a
fine of one thousand livres to be paid the informer.

September 24, 1724- Extends for one year permission
granted to the French merchants trading with the French
colonies of America to import from foreign countries
lard, butter, tallow, candles, and salted salmon, without
paying duties.

January 26, 1727. Orders that deserters from the
troops of the Company of the Indies be punished m the
same manner as deserters from the troops of the King.
The punishments were as follows: When two deserters
shall be arrested together, or two taken to a place on the
same day, they shall be put to death without remission;
but if there be more than two, in order to avoid the effu-
sion of blood, His Majesty wishes that, after they have
been condemned to death, they shall draw lots, three by
three, to decide which one shall be put to death, and the
two others shall be condemned to the galleys for life.

96 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [itss

Those soldiers, however, who are convicted of desertion
while on guard duty shall be put to death, whatever be
their number. All horsemen, dragoons, or soldiers de-
serting into foreign countries shall be hanged, whatever
be their number.

July lj 1727. In the ordinance concerning military
crimes and offenses, the punishment prescribed for al-
most every offense is death by shooting, hanging, or
breaking on the wheel; for blasphemy, the tongue is to
be pierced with a hot iron; the death penalty or galleys
for life for stealing in the barracks clothes or bread.
This extraordinary severity was not confined to France
alone, but was general in Europe at that time.

The edict of October, 1727, and the declaration of the
King of November 10, 1727, rigidly excluded foreign
commerce from the French colonies. The only exception
was salt meat from Ireland, which was allowed to be in-
troduced into the colonies.

January 1, 1729. Some of the articles of a regulation
for the hospitals of the King's troops appear very curi-
ous to us. The physician shall visit the patients every
day. He shall be accompanied by an assistant to the
surgeon, who shall write down the bleedings ordered and
the regimen. An apothecary and nurses shall accompany
the physician, to report to him the effects of the drugs
and anything that may have happened to the patients.
The physician, as well as the surgeon, shall taste the
soup and the wine, shall see the meat and the bread, and
shall forbid that any fruit be given the patients or
any food unfit for them. The physician shall visit the

1799] HOSPITALS 97

pharmacy from time to time, to examine the quality and
quantity of the drugs. The surgeon shall oblige all his
aides to sleep in the hospital, and if he lodges there he
shall visit their room to see if they are there. If there
is an assistant surgeon, he shall attend to this. No sol-
dier shall be permitted to make a will in favor of the offi-
cers of the hospital where he shall be, not even in favor
of the chaplain or of the latter's convent under pre-
text of pious legacy. All the officers of the hospital
shall see to it that none of the patients or attendants shall
blaspheme, curse, or use improper words.

CHAPTER VI

Colonization

New Orleans in its beginning— War with the Natchez-— Bienville's recall to
France— His services— Early censuses— Notice of Dubreuil— Governor
Perier— The Ursulines— New Orleans as seen by Sister Madeleine Hachard —
The first residence of the Ursulines —The convent— The ecclesiastical juris-
dictions—The Capuchins and the Jesuits— The currency— Progress of the
colony— The early population of Louisiana— Massacre by the Natchez— The
Yazoos join the Natchez— The Choctaws remain faithful to the French—
Loubois attacks the Natchez— The Natchez routed by St. Denis— The Tu-
nicas—Plot of the negroes— Governor Perier attacks the Natchez— The last
stand of the Natchez -Ruin of the Natchez.

UMONT, who was twenty-two years
in Louisiana, has given such an in-
teresting account of New Orleans in
its beginning that we shall quote
freely from his Memoirs. He says : '
" The Sieur de la Tour had no sooner
arrived at this place— which then
consisted only of a few unimportant houses, scattered
here and there, and which had been formed by some
travelers who had come down from the Illinois — than
he caused to be cleared along the river quite a large space,
in order that he might put in execution the plan he had
projected; then, with the help of some piqueurs, he
traced on the ground the streets and the quarters that

98

1793] NEW ORLEANS 99

were to compose the new town, and announced that all
who wished to have building-lots should present their
petitions to the Council. They gave to each settler who
appeared ten toises 2 front by twenty deep, and as each
quarter was fifty toises square, it is understood that there
must have been in each twelve inhabitants, of whom
the two in the middle had ten toises front by twenty-
five deep. It was ordered that those who should obtain
some of these lots should be obliged to inclose them with
palisades, and to leave all round a vacant space at least
three feet wide, at the foot of which a ditch should be
dug to serve as a drain to the waters of the river in the
season of inundation. Not only did the Sieur de la Tour
believe that he was obliged to order those canals, which
communicate from quarter to quarter, but also, to protect
the city from inundation, he caused to be erected in front,
and near a slight elevation that leads to the river, a dike
or levee of earth, at the foot of which he dug a similar
drain. The parish church of New Orleans is built facing
the Place d'Armes, and is served by the Reverend Capu-
chin Fathers; one of them is vicar-general of the Bishop
of Quebec. At some distance from the city is a very fine
house, where reside the Reverend Jesuit Fathers. It
belonged formerly to M. de Bienville, commandant-
general in the country, who sold it to them. There is in
this city a Council, which meets generally on Tuesdays
and Saturdays. It is composed of six councilors, an
attorney-general, and an intendant who is at the same
time commissaire ordonnateur ; also a clerk and a secre-
tary of the Council. Lawsuits are settled there without

100 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA \vin

attorneys or counselors, and consequently without ex-
pense, on the pleadings of the parties. Finally, this
place, which in the beginning was hardly a good-sized vil-
lage, may now justly be called a city. On the levee, to
the left, a little above the intendant's, is the market, and
opposite the place, near the storehouses, is the anchorage
for vessels, which almost touch the shore. There is also
a prison in front of the square, and beside it is the guard-
house. The powder-magazine is at a distance from the
city, not to be exposed to fire. In a word, it may be said
that nothing is lacking to this capital except fortifica-
tions, which have not yet been begun. Besides, there
are very fine brick houses, and a very large number of
houses four and five stories high." Two statements in
Dumont's Memoirs are noticeable: first, that when the
author resided in New Orleans it was the golden age of
the city, when lawsuits were settled without lawyers and
without expense ; second, Dumont says there were at that
time buildings four and five stories high. If this is true,
the tradition is incorrect which says that the first four-
story house built in New Orleans is the one now standing
at the corner of Royal and St. Peter streets, erected
during the Spanish domination.

From Dumont and Le Page du Pratz we obtain the
best account of the war with the Natchez in 1723. When
this tribe of Indians again committed depredations and
murdered some Frenchmen, Bienville marched against
them with seven hundred soldiers. He attacked the
White Apple village and two other villages, obtained
from chief Stung Serpent the head of the chief of the

I

1723] EARLY CENSUSES 101

White Apple village, and that of a free negro residing
among the Natchez, and a second time restored quiet to
the country. His administration, so far, had been suc-
cessful, and he had shown great firmness in his dealings
with the Indians. We are, therefore, astonished to see
him recalled to France in 1724. Boisbriant became gov-
ernor ad interim.

Bienville's enemies succeeded in bringing about his
downfall. His services, from 1698 to 1724, had been
great. Among them were the foundation of New Or-
leans and the transfer of the seat of government to
that town in 1722, and his efforts to provide educa-
tion for the people. It was he who invited the Ursu-
line nuns to New Orleans, and who established the first
girls' school and the first hospital. Shortly before the
end of his last administration he asked of the French
government the establishment of a Jesuits' college
for boys in New Orleans, but did not succeed in his
efforts.

The following statistics are copied from the archives
at the Ministry of the Colonies in Paris :

Census of New Orleans, November 24, 1721. Recapitulation:
Men, 446; women, 140; children, 96; negro slaves, 523; Indian
slaves, 51 ; cattle, 233 ; horses, 33.

Census of New Orleans in 1723. Recapitulation: Men bearing
arms, 229; women or girls, 169; children, 183; orphans, 45;
slaves, 267 ; horses, 14 ; cattle, 267 ; guns, 313 ; pistols, 25.

General census of the colony of Louisiana on January 1, 1726.
Recapitulation: Masters, 1952; hired men and servants, 276;
negro slaves, 1540; Indian slaves, 229.

/

102 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [na*

General census of the department of New Orleans on July 1,
1727. Recapitulation:

Masters Hired Negroes Savages Cattle Horses Hogs

New Orleans 729. ,

The Bayou and Chan-

tilly 42.

Inhabitants up the

river on the right . . 243 .

Idem on the left 306.

On the shore of Lake

Pontchartrain .... 7.
On Bayou Tauchpao. 2.

65..

127.

.17.

. 231.

. 10.

. —

5..

73.

. 5.

. 214.

. 27.

. 75

26..

883.

.45.

. 993.

.107.

.403

35.,

456.

. 5.

. 356.

. 37.

. 36

2..

14.

a a

t

5.

8.

. 1.

— .

. — .

, —

Totals 1329. .138. .1561. .73. .1794. .181. .514

The following notice of Joseph Dubreuil, dated 1724,
is interesting:

Claude Joseph Dubreuil, aged 30 years, native of Dijon, came
in Comte de Toulouse in 1719. He is one of the most laborious
and most intelligent of all the inhabitants. He understands
mechanics, and is of all trades. His lot is the largest, the finest,
and the best cleared in the colony. He has been the first to make
levees and deep ditches for the drainage of the waters in the
swamps, to keep his lands dry. He gave the idea and made him-
self seven to eight thousand toises of canals, besides four or five
thousand toises of ditches. He has a large house with two wings
which serve as a store, which he is completing at present. He has
the best lodging in the colony. He has a very fine view.

As a confirmation of the statement that Dubreuil was
the first that made levees and drainage canals in Louisi-

17S6] GOVERNOR PERIER 103

ana, we may mention a letter written by him in 1740.
He speaks of the canal that he is digging at his own
expense near Xew Orleans, and he asks the protection of
the King on account of the services he has rendered the
colony since his arrival there in 1719. He says: " The
establishment of Xew Orleans in the beginning was aw-
ful, the river when it was high spreading over the whole
ground, and in all the houses there were two feet of water,
which caused general and mortal diseases. As I was
known to be enterprising and not capable of refusing
a service, the Directors begged me to make the levee, and
I made two thirds of it without any compensation, and
Xew Orleans was out of inundation and as dry as if it
had been built on a high land." The canal that Dubreuil
was digging was necessary for bringing lumber to ship
to France, and for building vessels, which he intended
to do.

Dubreuil, called also Villars Dubreuil, sold on most
liberal terms a house for the residence of the governor,
and he was a very useful citizen. It is pitiful to see that
in 1778 his widow, owing to his disinterestedness, was
reduced to absolute poverty in France, and his six chil-
dren in Louisiana were living in the woods with the
savages.

Bienville's successor, Perier, arrived in Xew Orleans
in October, 1726. He was " a brave marine officer, to
whose praise it can be said that he caused himself to be
loved by the troops as well as by the inhabitants, for
his equity and his benevolent generosity." 3 Bienville's
relatives, his brother Chateaugue and his nephew De

104. A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [its?

Noyan, were recalled to France, as well as his cousin
Boisbriant a little later. De la Chaise, the commissary,
had been the chief cause of Boisbriant's fall, and when
Perier reached Louisiana he met with no opposition from
the partisans of Bienville.

We have seen that he took great interest in education,
and that it was he who invited the Ursuline nuns to come
to Louisiana. He had at first endeavored to obtain some
Gray sisters from Canada, and had not succeeded. Then
Father de Beaubois, a Jesuit, had suggested the Ursu-
lines. A contract was finally signed with them on Sep-
tember 13, 172C, and approved by the King on September
18, by which it was agreed that six nuns were to open a
girls' school in New Orleans, and to attend to the hos-
pital. The sisters met at Hennebon and recognized as
superior Mother Marie Tranchepain de Saint- Augustin. 4
They sailed from Lorient on February 23, 1727, and
arrived at New Orleans on August 6, after a very long
and perilous voyage. This voyage has been described
by Sister Madeleine Hachard, whose impressions of New
Orleans are of great historic interest. Her letters to her
father are witty, instructive, and charming. She relates
how they escaped from pirate ships before reaching
Santo Domingo, which they left on May 19. They were
nearly shipwrecked, and finally arrived at the Balize, at
the mouth of the Mississippi, on July 23. They were well
received by De Verges, the commandant, and went up
the river in canoes. They suffered greatly during the
journey; but, as the gentle sister says, " one is well re-
warded afterward by the pleasure one finds in relating

i72i] THE URSULINES 105

one's little adventures, and one is surprised when one con-
siders the strength and the courage which God gives in
these troubles, which proves well that he is never lacking
to any one, and that he does not permit that we should be
tempted beyond our strength, giving us graces propor-
tionate to the trials that happen to us. It is true that
the ardent desire which we had to arrive at that promised
land made us endure everything with joy." The nuns
received as a residence Bienville's former house and dwelt
there until 1734, when they took possession of the convent
house built for them on Conde Street, now Chartres.
This building, the oldest in New Orleans, was for a time
the State House of Louisiana and the archbishop's palace.
Sister Madeleine Hachard says a song was publicly
sung in Xew Orleans, in which it was said that the city
had as much " appearance " as Paris, and she adds: " In-
deed, it is very beautiful, but besides that I have not
enough eloquence to be able to persuade you of the
beauty which the song mentions, I find a difference be-
tween this city and that of Paris. It might persuade peo-
ple who had never seen the capital of France, but I have
seen it, and the song will not persuade me of the contrary
of what I believe. It is true that it is increasing every
day, and later may become as beautiful and as large as
the principal towns of France, if there still come work-
men, and it becomes peopled according to its size." She
speaks of the magnificent dresses of the ladies, and is
grateful for the kind treatment of the governor and his
wife and of the principal inhabitants. She mentions the
mosquitoes and other insects, which she knows only by

10G A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [i7»

sight, but which fly around her and, she says, would like
to assassinate her.

Sister Hachard gives the following description of
Bienville's house, which was given the nuns on their ar-
rival in New Orleans:

Our residence since our arrival here is in the finest house in the
city; it is a two-story building, with an attic. We have all the
rooms necessary, six doors to enter the rooms on the lower floor.
There are everywhere large windows. However, there are no panes
of glass, but the framework is covered with a thin and transparent
material, which gives as much light as glass. It is situated at one
end of the town. We have a poultry yard and a garden, which
join and are met at both ends by large wild trees, of prodigious
height and size.

In her letter dated April 24, 1728, Sister Hachard
says there are at the convent twenty girls, boarding stu-
dents, three ladies, three orphan girls, seven slaves, board-
ers to be prepared for baptism and first communion, and
a large number of day scholars and negresses and Indian
women who come two hours every day to receive instruc-
tion (probably religious). She says it is the custom for
girls to marry at the age of twelve and fourteen, and that,
before the arrival of the nuns, many girls had been mar-
ried without any religious instruction. Now, however,
none are married without having received instruction
from the sisters. An important part of the latter's work
is the care of the sick.

Sister Hachard mentions several times in her letters,
and with great praise, the Jesuit Father de Beaubois. It
was he, as we have seen, who had suggested the Ur-

1788] THE CAPUCHINS 107

sulines to Bienville, when the latter was looking for teach-
ers for the girls in Louisiana. The province had heen
divided, hy an ordinance dated May 16, 1722, into three
spiritual jurisdictions. 5 The first, comprising all the
country from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Wa-
hash, and west of the Mississippi, was allotted to the Ca-
puchins, whose superior was to be grand vicar of the
Bishop of Quebec in that department and was to reside
in Xew Orleans. The second extended north from the
Wabash, and belonged to the Jesuits, whose superior, re-
siding in the Illinois country, was to be also grand vicar
of the Bishop of Quebec in that department. The third
comprised all the country east of the Mississippi, from
the sea to the Wabash, and was given to the Carmelites,
whose superior was also grand vicar and resided usually
at Mobile.

The Capuchins took possession of their district in 1722;
the Jesuits had been in theirs a long time. The jurisdic-
tion of the Carmelites was added to that of the Capu-
chins on December 19, 1722, and the former returned to
France. In December, 1723, the jurisdiction of the Ca-
puchins was restricted to the country from Natchez south
to the sea, on both sides of the river, as the Capu-
chins were not very numerous. It was, however, decreed
in 1725 that no monks or priests could attend to churches
or missions within the jurisdiction of the Capuchins, with-
out the consent of the latter. It was found a little later
that the Capuchins could not attend properly to missions,
on account of their small number and their inaptitude
for such work. 6 The spiritual care of all the savages

108 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA 11729

in the province was therefore given to the Jesuits, and
their superior was permitted to reside in New Orleans,
provided he performed no ecclesiastical functions without
the consent of the Capuchins. Several Jesuits arrived
in New Orleans with the Ursuline nuns, and Father
de Beaubois soon became their superior. He pretended
to have obtained from the Bishop of Quebec the au-
thority of grand vicar even for New Orleans, and acted
as such, in spite of the remonstrances of the Capuchin
superior, Father Raphael. Father de Beaubois was re-
called, and was succeeded by Father Petit, who was of
a " very moderate and circumspect disposition." At the
time of the arrival of the Ursulines in New Orleans, the
Capuchin Father Cecile is mentioned as a schoolmaster.
He probably had a school for boys.

Dumont, in his " Memoires Historiques," gives an in-
teresting account of the currency in Louisiana. He says
that when the Western Company took charge of the
colony hardly any money was seen there, except Spanish
coin and French silver, with which a few things were
bought. The goods sold by the Company were not paid
for in money. " When goods were needed, a list was
made and presented to one of the directors of the Com-
pany, who, after deducting what he thought proper, wrote
on it an order for the storekeeper. The applicant then
went to the store to receive what was on his statement,
and that amount was deducted from the total he was
entitled to receive. In a word, the notes of officers, clerks,
and employes were then current in the community, and
passed for money." There was afterward card money,

17^9] THE CURRENCY 109

from five sous to fifty livres, and " for the advantage of
those who could not read, it was made so that hy mere
inspection one knew what was the value of the card by
the way it was cut. The value was also marked, and the
cards bore two signatures, which, however, were often
forged. Hardly had the card money been invented when
a small copper coin began to arrive. Vessels were for-
bidden to refuse card money, but they lost nothing, since,
on paying into the Company's treasury the amount re-
ceived in notes, they received bills of exchange on
France." Private individuals who wished to return to
France were compelled to exchange their card money for
Spanish dollars, and lost a good deal. The management
of the currency, throughout the whole French domination,
was unwise and vexatious.

Nevertheless, the colony was prospering under the rule
of the Company of the Indies: New Orleans was pro-
tected by a levee in 1729; the crops of rice, tobacco, and
indigo were satisfactory; the fig-tree from Provence and
the orange-tree from Santo Domingo had thriven; ne-
groes had been imported to cultivate the land; and in
1728 a ship had arrived with young girls who were to
be married to the colonists. Each girl had received a
small casket containing some articles of clothing, and
they were known afterward as les filles a la cassette.
They were of good character, and were placed under the
charge of the Ursuline nuns until their marriage.

It has been said that the Louisianians of French origin
are descended not only from the " casket girls," but also
from girls taken from the prisons of Paris and trans-

110 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1729

ported by force to the colony. That this is incorrect is
proved by an extract from a letter of an Englishman
long a resident of Louisiana, dated December 10, 1751 : 7

You have seen, Sir, by this detail that we have had, and have
still to-day, in the colony a number of persons of distinction. If
I had mentioned the other posts and only all those who have occu-
pied or who still occupy positions with the commission of the King,
without mentioning several other persons very much esteemed, you
will see that the greater number were and are still married. Several
have taken with them their wives and children from France. Their
children have greatly multiplied, so much so that one may surely
say that there is no colony, considering its population, more filled
with honest people. A remarkable thing is, that out of forty-four
girls who were sent by force from France in 1722 by the Mutme
(the only ones of that kind who have set foot in the colony) there
is only one who has left any posterity, although all were married
and had several children. Of several convicts who were sent in
the beginning of the colony, I do not know of a single one who
was established there. It seems that this country has something
which distinguishes it, as with certain countries where no vile
creature can leave its kind ; and one may say that all persons are
of such honest extraction that it would be difficult to marry into
families with dishonor, in spite of the reviling made of this colony
in the beginning of its establishment. They wisely prohibited,
in the beginning, all marriages of whites with the savages, the
negroes or mulattoes, which has always been exactly observed since,
so that one may say that the blood in that respect is here as pure
as in any kingdom in Europe, and very different from several other
countries and colonies, particularly of the Spaniards, where one
sees a horrible mixture of all races.

The prosperity of the colony was rudely interrupted
in 1729 by the massacre of the French at Fort Rosalie,
and by the war that followed against the Natchez and the

1799] NATCHEZ MASSACRE in

Chickasaws. Very full details of these events are given
by Dumont, who was a lieutenant at Fort Rosalie shortly
before the massacre; by Le Page du Pratz, who was in
Louisiana at that time; and by Governor Perier and other
officers of the colony, in their official despatches. The
Chickasaws never had been very friendly to the French,
and the Xatchez seemed restless. Bienville had asked
for more troops, and Perier repeated the demand when
he became governor, but without success. The Indians
were led to attack the French by the greed and injustice
of Chopart, the commandant at Fort Rosalie. He or-
dered the Xatchez to abandon one of their finest villages
in order that he might establish a plantation there. The
chief succeeded in obtaining, or rather in buying, from
him a delay, but the Xatchez thought that henceforth their
safety lay only in destroying the French at Fort Rosalie.
They formed a plot for that purpose, and although Cho-
part had received warning, he did nothing to protect the
French. On Xovember 28, 1729, the savages surprised
the fort, massacred the commandant and two hundred
and fifty men, and took prisoners a number of women,
children, and negro slaves. Only one soldier of the gar-
rison escaped, and four or five inhabitants, of whom one
or two succeeded in reaching Xew Orleans. All the wo-
men were employed as slaves, and the fort and all the
other buildings of the French were burned. Two men
only were spared, — one a tailor, and the other a cart-
driver who was employed to transport to the villages of
the Indians the booty captured at the fort.

The Xatchez murdered afterward four men who were
in a canoe on the river, and killed the child of one of

112 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1739

the captive Frenchwomen, in order that he might accom-
pany to the land of spirits the dead child of one of
the Indians. They also persuaded the Yazoos to massa-
cre the French who had settled in their country at Fort
St. Claude. This was done in the beginning of the year
1730. The Natchez had not succeeded as well with the
Choctaws as with the Yazoos. They had expected that
the Choctaws would massacre the French in New Orleans
on the same day when the Natchez massacred them in
their own country; but the plot failed, if it ever existed,
and Dumont says the Choctaws forbade the Natchez to
put to death any of the captive women and children.

The news of the massacre reached New Orleans in the
beginning of December, 1729, and Governor Perier sent
to the Choctaws the Sieur de Lery, an officer well versed
in the languages of the savages. The Choctaws promised
to give the French all the aid in their power, and Perier
sent against the Natchez the Chevalier de Loubois, 8 the
King's lieutenant, who went to the country of the Tuni-
cas and built a fort there to await the coming of the
Choctaws. After a short time, Loubois called for men
of good will to reconnoiter in the country of the Natchez.
Five men presented themselves, but they acted impru-
dently and were caught by the savages, after one of them,
Navarre, had been killed fighting and taunting his ene-
mies. One of the captives was sent with a message to
Loubois, two were immediately murdered, and the fifth
man, Mesplet, was tortured most horribly. In February,
1730, sixteen hundred Choctaws arrived in the Natchez
country, but after freeing a few women they stayed a
month at some distance from the fort of the Natchez

1730] NATCHEZ HOUTED 113

without attacking the latter. Finally, Loubois appeared
before the fort in March and laid siege to it. In spite
of a brisk firing, the French were, for a considerable time,
unsuccessful in their attacks, and the siege seemed only
to be an occasion for individual acts of heroism, when
very unexpectedly the Natchez sent a Frenchwoman to
the commander to sue for peace. The captive women
and children were delivered to the Choctaws, allies of the
French, and Loubois was on the point of renewing his
attack, in spite of the capitulation, when it was found
that the savages had escaped from the fort in the night,
not trusting their enemies any more than the latter
trusted them. Loubois built a new fort in the Natchez
country, and returned to New Orleans with the unfortu-
nate captives, who had been freed from the Choctaws
with great trouble.

The Natchez retired toward Black River and con-
tinued their attacks against the French. They murdered
a detachment of twenty men in the neighborhood of the
fort at Natchez, tried to surprise the garrison of the fort,
and attacked the fort at Natchitoches. There, however,
they had to deal with the valiant St. Denis, who, with a
reinforcement of forty Natchitoches Indians, completely
routed the savages and killed sixty of them without los-
ing a single man.

At that time the great chief of the Tunicas was killed
by the Natchez. He had become a Christian, as well as
his son, and had received a medal from the King of
France in recompense for his attachment to the French.
A little before the death of their chief the Tunicas had
taken a Natchez woman to New Orleans, and had ob-

114 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [mi

tained from Perier permission to burn and torture her
publicly. The French governor was not a cruel man,
but we must deplore the fact that through policy he al-
lowed and even ordered several cruel deeds to be com-
mitted in the wars against the savages.

These were troublous times indeed, for not only were
the French threatened with destruction by the hostile
Indians, but the negroes formed a plot in New Orleans
to murder the whites. The plot was discovered, the lead-
ers were executed, and in order to render the savages for-
ever hostile to the negroes Perier caused the latter to put
to death seven or eight Chouachas Indians and to destroy
their village. The chief aim of the governor, however,
was to prosecute the war against the Natchez. He re-
ceived, in August, 1730, some reinforcements from
France, under his brother, Perier de Salvert, and on No-
vember 15, 1730, he departed with six hundred and fifty
soldiers, including the militia, and three hundred and
fifty Indian auxiliaries for the Black River. In this
expedition he succeeded in bringing back to New Orleans,
on February 5, 1731, four hundred and twenty-seven
captives, including Great Sun and several chiefs. These
were sent to Santo Domingo by Perier and sold as slaves.
He had previously, he said, " burned four men and two
women here."

The place where the Natchez made their last stand
against Perier has been definitely ascertained by Clai-
borne, who gives the following interesting statement of
Dr. Henry F. Peck, A.B., in his " History of Missis-
sippi": 9

1731] RUIN OF THE NATCHEZ 115

Battle-Ground Plantation, Sicily Island,
Catahoula Parish, La., March 6, 1878.

The last stand of the Natchez was made here, on the southwest
end of a small lake, which makes part of the eastern boundary of
Sicily Island. The bluff, at this point, is some thirty feet above
the level of the lake, with a deep ravine on the south and west.
They threw up an intrenchment, which could be traced as late as
1825. The position is just forty miles from Natchez, across the
swamp. It is to identify this point as the last great battle-ground
of the Natchez to wliich you have directed your inquiries. The
war material found here is conclusive as to its having been the
scene of a great conflict, in which European soldiers took part.
Fragments of shells, indicating a diameter of four to six inches,
were profusely scattered over the field; the outer plates of gun-
locks, almost destroyed by oxidation ; fragments of pistol-barrels ;
great numbers of gun-flints of very fine silex; a chain-shot that
still weighs three pounds eleven ounces; and musket -balls so numer-
ous that our early hunters obtained their lead on the premises.
These balls were so encrusted with oxide that when melted each one
left a white shell like an egg-shell. Many irons resembling mill-
irons, fragments of crockery and pottery, ordinary Indian arrow-
heads.

The Natchez, now greatly reduced in number, were
routed by St. Denis at Natchitoches, in the summer of
1731, as we have already related. What remained of the
tribe was adopted by the Chickasaws, and the name of
the Natchez as a nation was lost. Such was the fate of
these Indians, who have been celebrated in history and
in romance, and whose name has been given to a beautiful
town on the broad river where used to glide swiftly the
pirogues and bark canoes of the dreaded and brave war-
riors of Great Sun.

CHAPTER VII

Bienville's Wars with the Chickasaws-
Vaudreuil, the Grand Marquis— The
Seven Years' War

Character of Governor Perier — List of officers from 1725 to 1730— Sur-
render of the charter of the Company of the Indies — Return of Bienville
— War with the Chickasaws — Bienville's retreat — Death of young D'Ar-
taguette— Names of the principal officers — Bienville's narrative — Second
expedition against the Chickasaws — Failure of the expedition — Celoron
attacks the Indians— Bienville asks to be relieved— Foundation of the hos-
pital—Hurricanes in 1740 — Request for the establishment of a college of
the Jesuits — Brothers of the Christian schools— Bienville's departure from
the colony — The Marquis de Vaudreuil — Hostilities with the Indians — Or-
dinances of Vaudreuil and Salmon — Vaudreuil's activity — His police regu-
lations — Vaudreuil becomes Governor of Canada— Introduction of the
sugar-cane— The last girls sent at the King's expense — Washington at
Great Meadows and at Fort Necessity— Bossu's account of the Creoles —
Bossu's description of New Orleans— Governor Kerlerec — The tragedy at
Cat Island — Sad fate of Beaudreau — Unwise administration of France and
of Louisiana— Marigny de MandevLUe— Adventures of Belle-Isle— Defeat
of the French in America.

X his last expedition against the Nat-
chez, Governor Perier appears to
have acted with duplicity, and to
have captured the chiefs by an un-
worthy stratagem. He does not ap-
pear, however, in his despatches to
his government, to helieve that he
has done wrong, and it is but just to quote here what Le
Page du Pratz says of him : * " M. de Salvert left Lou-

116

^~-\v- ^fc

dfJh^*£«Skb£ $ &

s

n

^^K

Csi

m

'r'JS--

ii^is*

^P*i

^5g

sjg]

mi] CHARACTER OF PERIER 117

isiana with the laurels he had gathered there, and re-
turned to France to receive the applause of the court.
M. Perier, our Governor, was also recalled some time
later; he received the reward due his services, the firm-
ness and the equity with which he had governed; quali-
ties which caused him to he regretted by all the honest
people in the colony."

The following list of the officers in Louisiana 2 from
1725 to 1730 is interesting: Le Chevalier de Loubois,
licit tenant tie roij New Orleans; Le Baron de Crenay,
lieutenant de roi, Mobile; D'Artaguette, major, New
Orleans; Beauchamp, major, Mobile; Bessan, aide-ma-
jor, Xew Orleans; St. Denis, commandant, Natchitoches ;
St. Ange pere, lieutenant reforme, commandant at the
Illinois; De Vincennes, commandant at Ouabache.

The captains were: Gauvrit, at the Balize; Pradel, at
Natchez; Marchand de Courcelles, at Mobile; Renaud
d'Hauterive, at Mobile; Lusser, at Mobile; Chevalier de
Noyan, at New Orleans; Chevalier de St. Julien, at New
Orleans.

The lieutenants were: Montmarquet, at the Aliba-
mons; Basse, at Mobile; Petit de Levilliers, at New Or-
leans; Benoist, at Mobile; Maillard, at the Illinois; Gau-
tren, at the Natchitoches.

The sous-lieutenants were: Terisse de Tressan, at the
Illinois; Simare de Belle-Isle, at New Orleans; Regis
du Roulet, at the Choctaws; Maren de Latour, at New
Orleans; Marin Dupuy, at New Orleans; Duterpuy Ver-
chier, at Mobile.

The enseignes were: Ste. Therese de Langloiserie, at

118 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1731

New Orleans; St. Ange fils, at the Illinois; Dutisne, at
the Illinois; Chambellan Graton, at the Choctaws; Ben-
nille, at Mobile; Grandpre, at New Orleans; Chevalier
d'Herneuville, at the Natchez.

The Offtciers reformes (retired) were: DArensbourg,
captain, at the village of the Germans ; Mondrelois, lieu-
tenant, at New Orleans; Juzan, lieutenant, at the Tuni-
cas ; De Labuissonniere, at the Natchez.

The officers without commission were: Coulanges, at
the Arkansas; Isel, at the Natchez.

In the " Historical Collections of Louisiana," by B.
F. French, Part III, page 179, is a list of the first in-
habitants of New Orleans.

The expense occasioned by the Natchez war had been
so great that the Company of the Indies begged to be
allowed to surrender its charter, 3 and in 1731 Louisi-
ana became again a royal province. The colony had
prospered considerably since 1717, and the population
had increased from about six hundred whites and twenty
negroes to five thousand whites and two thousand ne-
groes. Agriculture was also in a flourishing condition.
The chief crops were indigo and tobacco ; cotton also was
cultivated, but on a small scale. Commerce was lan-
guishing and had to be encouraged in 1732 by a decree
that exempted from duties all goods sent from France
to Louisiana and from Louisiana to France. In the
same year (1732) the Superior Council of the colony
was reorganized as follows: Perier, governor; Salmon,
commissaire ordonnateur; Loubois and DArtaguette,
King's lieutenants; Benac, major of New Orleans; Fa-

nasi RETURN OF BIENVILLE 119

zende, Brule, Bru, Lafreniere, Prat, and Raguet, coun-
cilors; Fleuriau, attorney-general; Rossart, secretary.

A little later Bienville was again appointed governor,
and he arrived in New Orleans in the beginning of 1733.
The colonists received him with joy; but this distin-
guished man met with great disasters in his last wars
with the Indians. Perier does not appear to have shown
sufficient tact in his dealings with the savages, and he
treated them, as we have seen, with unnecessary harsh-
ness. His successor, Bienville, found the important tribe
of the Chickasaws dissatisfied with the French, and war
could hardly be avoided. Our chief authorities for these
events are Dumont's " Memoires Historiques " and Bien-
ville's despatches.

After the defeat of the Natchez at Natchitoches by
St. Denis, the greater part of the remnant of that tribe
was adopted by the Chickasaws. In 1734 Bienville asked
for the surrender of the fugitives, but the Chickasaws
replied that the Natchez formed part of their tribe and
they could not abandon them. The governor resolved,
therefore, to compel the Chickasaws to give up the Nat-
chez, and he prepared actively for war. He sent to the
Illinois country five boats commanded by Le Blanc.
One of the boats was loaded with powder, and the others
with merchandise, and Le Blanc succeeded in reaching
the Arkansas in safety. He unwisely left the powder
there, and on his arrival at the Illinois country, he sent
a boat to get the powder. On the way back the boat was
captured by the Indians, all the men in it were killed ex-
cept two, and the powder was lost. Le Blanc transmitted

120 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [me

to D'Artaguette, the commandant at Fort Chartres,
Bienville's orders, which were that D'Artaguette should
collect as large an army as possible and go to the Chick-
asaw country, 4 where Bienville would meet him by May
10, 1736. DArtaguette was the younger brother of
Diron, the commissary, who was then on bad terms with
the governor.

Bienville went to Fort Conde at Mobile and met the
great chief of the Choctaws, whom he induced, by pres-
ents, to promise the aid of his tribe against the Chick-
asaws. He returned afterward to Xew Orleans, col-
lected his troops, and went back to Mobile, from which
place the expedition was to set out. On April 1, 1736,
the army left Mobile and went up the Mobile River in
a small fleet of thirty pirogues and thirty flatboats. On
April 20, Bienville arrived at a place called Tombecbe,
and was joined there by the Choctaw auxiliaries. He
was detained by rains at Tombecbe until May 4, and on
May 25 reached a place called Tibia, seven leagues from
the Chickasaw village. The army advanced in good
order, " the soldiers," says Dumont, " like those of Gid-
eon, gathering, as they passed by on that prairie, bunches
of strawberries, which our common mother offered with-
out cultivation and in abundance to those who would pre-
sent themselves to gather them."

The Indians were found in a strongly fortified post,
over which an English banner floated, and four or five
Englishmen were seen in the Indian village. The troops
attacked the fort, but were repelled with heavy loss, as
they had no material for a siege. On May 27 Bienville

1736] THE CHICKASAW WAR 121

ordered the army to retreat, and returned to New Or-
leans, where he heard of the sad fate of D'Artaguette. 5
The commandant of Fort Chartres had oheyed his chief's
orders and had marched into the country of the Chicka-
saws. He arrived there on May 9, and, not being sup-
ported by the main army of the French, was defeated
by the Indians and forced to surrender. D'Artaguette,
Vincennes, Father Senac, a Jesuit missionary, and six-
teen other men were burned at the stake. The unhappy
fate of DArtaguette struck the imagination of the col-
onists, and his name has become connected with a proverb
in Louisiana. In speaking of something very old, one
says: "As old as the time of D'Artaguette — vieux
comme du temps D'Artaguette." Bienville's army, in
the unfortunate expedition against the Chickasaws, was
composed of five hundred and forty-four white men,
forty-five negroes commanded by free negroes, and a
large number of Choctaws.

" Among the principal officers," says Bienville, " were
Messieurs Delery, D'Hauterive, De Lusser, De Cour-
tillas, Petit, Berthel, De Bombelles, Benac, Le Blanc,
De Membrede, De Macarty, De St. Pierre, De Velles,
De Bouille, Des Marets, De Contre-Coeur, Populus de
St. Protais, Pontalba, Vanderek, Montbrun, Noyau.
At the head of the Swiss were Du Pare and Volant.
Montmolin was the standard-bearer. The detachment
of the planters was commanded by Lesueur and St.
Martin."

We quote here extracts from Bienville's account of
the expedition, dated June 28, 1736.°

122 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ins

Finally, on May 22, 1736, we were all at the new portage,
where we landed at a distance of nine leagues from the Chickasaw
villages. On the 23rd, at day-break, I caused a number of pickets
to be cut and a small fort to be traced, which was erected imme-
diately for the defense of our carriages. I drew from the com-
panies a garrison of twenty men, to remain there under the com-
mand of the Sieur de Vanderek, with the keeper of the provisions,
the owners of the boats and a few sick men. I had the time to
notice, on seeing all the Choctaws together, that they had not come
in such large number as they had promised, and that they were
hardly more than six hundred men. I had a great deal of trouble
to find a certain number who were willing to carry, by paying them,
sacks of powder and of balls, which the negroes could not carry,
having already taken other things. On the 24th, after taking pro-
visions for twelve days, I left the fort in the afternoon, and camped
in the evening two leagues from that place. The rains, which had
troubled me so much on the river, did not leave me on land. Hardly
were we camped when a violent storm broke out, which raged several
times during the night and made us all fear for our provisions and
ammunition. We succeeded, however, in preserving them. On
the 25th we had to pass, in the space of five short leagues, across
three deep ravines, where we had water up to the waist. As the
banks were covered with very thick cane, I had sent scouts ahead.

Bienville wished to attack first the village of the Nat-
chez, which was a little farther ; hut the Choctaws insisted
upon attacking the Chickasaws.

The prairie, continues Bienville, in which these villages were
situated, was about two leagues in extent. There were three little
villages establish d in a triangle on the crest of a hill, at the bot-
tom of which flowed a brook almost dry. The Choctaws came to
tell me that I would not find any water further, and I ordered to
defile along the little wood that terminated the prairie, to reach an
elevation where I ordered a halt to eat. It was then after twelve

1736] THE CHICKASAW WAR 123

o'clock. However, the Choctaws, who wished, at all hazards, to
attack these first villages, began a skirmish, as soon as we had
entered the prairie, to draw upon ns the attack of the enemy. This
succeeded; so that most of the officers joined the Choctaws to ask
that those villages be attacked where they did think we would find
a great resistance. I consented then, and I ordered an attack, at
two o'clock in the afternoon, by the company of grenadiers, a
picket of fifteen men from each of the eight French companies,
sixty Swiss and forty-five men from the volunteers and militia, un-
der the command of M. de Noyan.

From the place where we had stopped, at a carbine shot from the
villages, we perceived Englishmen, who were actively engaged in
preparing the Chickasaws for our attack. In spite of the irregu-
larity of this conduct, as on our arrival they had raised in one
of the three villages an English flag, to be known, I recommended
M. de Noyan to forbid that they should be insulted, if they wished
to retire, and, to give them the time, I ordered him to attack at
first the village opposite the one with the flag.

However, the detachment began to march and reached the bill,
protected by mantelets, which, in truth, were not long of use, be-
cause the negroes who were to carry them as far as a certain place,
having had one of their number killed and one wounded, threw
down the mantelets and fled. On entering the village called Ackia,
the head of the column and the grenadiers, being in the open field,
suffered severely. The Chevalier de Contre-Coeur was killed, and
several soldiers were killed or wounded. Yet we took the first three
strong cabins and several small ones that protected them, but when
it was necessary to cross from these to others, the Chevalier de
Xoyan perceived that be had with him only the officers of the van-
guard, a few grenadiers and a dozen volunteers. The death of
M. de Lusser, who was killed while crossing, as well as that of the
sergeant of the grenadiers and of part of his men, had already
frightened the troops. The soldiers crowded behind the captured
cabins, without the rear officers being able to dislodge them from
that place, so that the officers of the van were almost all disabled.

124 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [im

In one moment, the Chevalier de Noyan, M. d'Hautcrive, captain
of the grenadiers, and the Sieurs de Velles, Grondel and Montbrun
were wounded. It was in vain that the Chevalier de Noyan, wish-
ing to hold his ground, sent the Sieur de Juzan, his aide-major,
to try to bring back the soldiers. That officer was killed near them,
and his death only increased their fright. Finally, the wound of
M. de Noyan having compelled him to retire behind a cabin, he
sent me his secretary, who had followed him, ordering him to report
to me the critical situation in which he was, and advising me that,
if I did not order the retreat, or did not send reinforcements, the
remainder of the officers would soon share the fate of the first ; that,
as for him, he did not wish to have himself carried away, from
fear that the few men remaining would take occasion to flee ; that,
besides, at least sixtj' or seventy men were killed or wounded. At
this report, and because I saw the French troops as well as the
Swiss falling back, and also because we had just been threatened
with an attack from the side of the large prairie where were most
of the villages of the nation, and because we were all under arms,
I sent M. de Beauchamp with eighty men to conduct the retreat
and to carry off the dead and wounded. This was not done without
losing more men. The Sieur Favrot was wounded there. When
M. de Beauchamp arrived at the place of the attack he found there
almost no soldiers. The officers, assembled together and abandoned,
were holding their ground. That is to say, they were at the cabin
nearest the fort. M. de Beauchamp caused them to retire, and re-
turned to the camp in good order, the enemy not having dared to
come out to charge him. It is true that the Choctaws, who thus
far had remained protected on the hill-side, waiting for the event,
rose then and fired several times. They had on this occasion
twenty-two men killed or wounded. This in the end contributed
not a little to disgust them.

Bienville says he had to retire because he had neither
cannon nor mortars. He lost eight or nine officers and
one hundred and twenty French soldiers.

H39] THE CHICKASAW WAR 125

Bienville was very anxious to avenge D'Artaguette
and to regain his military renown. But he did not be-
lieve that he had sufficient troops to conquer the Chicka-
saws, and he applied to France for reinforcements. The
Chevalier de Beauharnais, Governor of Canada, was or-
dered to send troops to assist Bienville, and a body of
marines arrived from France, commanded by the Cheva-
lier Louis d'Ayme de Noailles. The army was conveyed
by the Mississippi River, called at that time St. Louis,
to Fort St. Francis on the St. Francis River, and
thence to the river Margot, now Wolf River. A work
called Fort Assumption was built near the present city
of Memphis, and large reinforcements were received
under the Sieur de la Buissonniere, successor to the un-
fortunate DArtaguette at Fort Chartres, and under
Captain de Celoron and Lieutenant de St. Laurent,
" followed," says Dumont, " by thirty cadets sent by the
Governor of Canada, with a great number of Indians
from Canada."

The army of Bienville, according to Judge Martin,
numbered about twelve hundred white troops, and double
that number of Indians and black troops. For some un-
accountable reason, the troops remained at Fort Assump-
tion, at some distance from the Indians, from August,
1739, to March, 174.0, without attacking the enemy. In
a despatch to the minister, 7 Bienville says he could find,
for some time, no suitable road to march against
the Chickasaws, and, his provisions having failed, he
called a council of war, composed of his principal officers,
which decided that, as it was impossible to bring forward

126 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [mo

the artillery necessary to the success of the expedition,
" it was not advisable to risk the glory of the arms of the
King on the chance of a doubtful success."

Dumont says that not only the provisions failed,
but sickness broke out in the camp, especially among the
soldiers recently arrived from France, and Bienville re-
solved, instead of conquering the Chickasaws, to grant
them peace if they asked for it. He accordingly sent
Celoron with his Canadian cadets and his Indian allies
to advance against the Chickasaws. 8 The latter, believ-
ing that the whole army of Bienville was marching to
attack them, begged for peace, and presented the calumet
to Celoron. This commander promised peace, and Bien-
ville ratified the treaty in April, 1740. He gave presents
to his Indian allies and dismissed them. The army now
returned to New Orleans, after destroying Forts As-
sumption and St. Francis. The Chickasaws were never
vanquished, and they and the Natchez fugitives contin-
ued to commit depredations at times. There was, how-
ever, no open war with them after Bienville's unsuc-
cessful expedition. Gayarre attributes Bienville's last
failure to a feeling of jealousy toward the Chevalier
d'Ayme de Noailles, who had been sent from France to
cooperate with him against the savages. But this opin-
ion does not do justice to Bienville's well-known patriot-
ism. He was so mortified and grieved at his failure
that he expressed the desire of returning to France as
soon as his duties would permit.

The following letter of Bienville to the French min-
ister, dated June 18, 1740, 9 is pathetic and interesting:

I

i7+o] BIENVILLE'S LETTER 127

The labors, the anxiety and the trouble of mind which I have
had to bear for the last eight years, during which it has pleased
your Highness to maintain me in this government, have weakened
my health to such an extent that I should not have hesitated to sup-
plicate for leave of absence to go to France by the first vessel of the
King, if the interest of the colony and that of my reputation did
not require that I should put the finishing touches to the treaty
of peace which I have begun with the Chickasaws and of which I
do not believe that we should hasten the conclusion, in order to leave
to the Choctaws the time of avenging upon the Chickasaws and
their protectors the insult which they have received from them.
That remnant of war can only weaken the Chickasaws the more,
and disgust the English with the commerce with our tribes. This
is the aim which I propose to myself, and which I hope to reach.
After I have thus reestablished peace and tranquillity in the col-
ony, I desire to be allowed to make a journey to France to restore
my exhausted health. I beg, then, your Highness to be so kind as
to ask the permission of the King for me. I do not expect to be able
to take advantage of it before the return of the vessel of 1742, and
in case France does not take part in the war that has broken out
in Europe.

In the same letter Bienville announces that the Sieur
de Noyan, his nephew, is leaving for France at his
own expense and with the help of his friends, as his
expenses in his last campaigns have been far in excess of
his pay.

During Bienville's last administration he and Salmon
wrote to the minister on May 20, 1737, that a former
sailor of the Company of the Indies, named Jean Louis,
who died in 1736, being unmarried and without children,
had left by a holographic will, to found a hospital, all
his property, which, all debts paid, consisted of ten thou-

128 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [mi

sand livres cash. In accord with the curate and the tes-
tamentary executor, Bienville and Salmon bought the
house of Mme. de Kolly, at the extremity of the city,
occupied formerly by the nuns. Then they bought beds
and other things needed for a hospital. After this ex-
penditure there remained five thousand livres, which,
with the help of the inhabitants, were to be employed in
building a large brick hall. The hospital was a great
relief to the King's hospital for the soldiers, where often
poor persons were received who otherwise would have
died in misery. In 1737 there were five patients at the
hospital. Jean Louis's humble but noble institution was
the beginning of the present splendid Charity Hospital.
In 1738 Dr. Prat, physician of the King's hospital, asked
for means to establish a garden of medicinal plants and
a house for his residence. 10 He requested that he have
a salary of two thousand livres, because the inhabitants
were accustomed to be treated for nothing by the physi-
cian, and the latter had no resource but the favor
of the King. The expenses for the military hospital
in 1741 were 18,270 livres, and for the church 17,104
livres.

On September 11 and 18, 1740, there were two terrific
hurricanes, which spared New Orleans but did great
damage at the Balize, at Biloxi, and at Mobile, and
caused almost a famine by the destruction of provisions
and of crops. Bienville attended with great care to the
needs of the colony in the last months of his administra-
tion, and he and Salmon made on June 15, 1742, the fol-
lowing request, which was not granted:

1749] A PROPOSED COLLEGE 129

For a long time the inhabitants of Louisiana have been making
representations on the necessity of establishing there a college for
the education of their children. Touched, on their side, by the
advantages of such an establishment, they proposed to the Jesuits
to provide it ; but these religious excused themselves for want of
lodging and teachers. It should, however, be essential that there
be one for the humanities only, geometry, geography, pilotage,
etc. The children would learn, besides, their religion, which
is the basis of morals. The parents see but too well how young
men brought up in luxury and idleness are of little use, and how
much it costs those of the inhabitants who are in a condition to send
their children to be educated. We may even fear that most of the
hitter young men, not caring any more for their country, will re-
turn there only to take possession of the estates that their parents
have left them. Another motive that engages them to make repre-
sentations is, that several of the most important persons of Vera
Cruz would like to be able to send their children to Louisiana to
learn the French language and manners. There are some who
have written on that subject to the Jesuit Fathers, and two children
had been sent to them, without waiting for their reply. Several
ethers would have come if there had been lodgings and teachers for
them. The Jesuits would have determined not to receive any at
all if they had not considered that the bonds of commerce which
that might bring about with Vera Cruz and other cities of Mexico
would contribute considerably to the advantage of the country.
These religious have written to their superiors to receive the orders
of Monseigneur [the minister] on that subject.

On April 30, and June 16, 1742, Salmon proposed also
to send into the colony two brothers of the Christian
schools for the instruction of the children, and he said
that a brother named Malo, who had been here for some
years, had assured him that there would be found brothers
who would not ask anything better than to accept, if they

130 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1749

were given three hundred livres salary for each one.
The brother has written to the order on that subject, and
he has also promised to share with those who might be
sent the little property that he has in the colony, which
may amount to three thousand livres. Salmon adds that
this establishment is so much the more necessary as there
are only soldiers who know nothing to give the first les-
sons to children. Those teachers, who will be an expense
of only six hundred livres a year, will be lodged without
its costing the King anything, on a lot that has been con-
ceded to a merchant who engages to build the necessary
house for the school. On the other hand, supposing that
the establishment of the college should take place, one
should not dispense with the other one proposed. In
fact, not only must the children have some instruction in
reading before going to the college of the Jesuits, but
the house of the latter is too far from the city for the
little children. Besides, each one, according to his cir-
cumstances, gives more or less education to his children.
Finally, with regard to the college, the expense will not
be great, and Salmon believes that the Jesuits would be
satisfied with an increase of board for two teachers whom
they would take to Louisiana, and with some tons of
freight to bring from France the provisions that they
might need for the boarders.

In May, 1743, Bienville left Louisiana forever; he
had devoted many years to the establishment of the col-
ony. We shall see him once more in Paris, endeavoring
in vain, in his old age, to prevent the transfer of his
cherished Louisiana to the rule of Spain. His successor

i743j VAUDREUIL 131

was the Marquis de Vaudreuil, who arrived in Louisiana
on May 10, 1743. He is known in the history of Loui-
siana as the Grand Marquis, on account of his elegant
manners and magnificent entertainments.

Vaudreuil refused to make peace with the Chickasaws
unless the Choctaws were included in the treaty, and he
endeavored to keep up the enmity that existed between
the two great Indian tribes. Red Shoe ( Soulier Rouge) ,
a Choctaw chief, gave the governor great trouble by his
restlessness and duplicity. He was one day with the
English, the next day with the French, and was ever
ready to receive money or provisions from either party.
He was the cause of a civil war among the Choctaws,
and finally was killed by the party friendly to the French.
The different Indian tribes harassed the colonies consid-
erably during Vaudreuil's administration, and among
the persons killed by the savages in 1748 was the unfor-
tunate dancing-master Baby. He was going along on
a poor horse, and armed only with a hunting-knife, when
he met the savages. He defended himself bravely and
took refuge in a neighboring house, where he was shot
to death. The fate of poor Baby must have caused great
sorrow to the ladies of New Orleans. Where did they
find another master to teach them the minuet and the
stately bows with which they were to salute the governor
and his wife? The manners in Louisiana were as courtly
as at Versailles, and the art of dancing was indispensable
in polite society in the eighteenth century.

On October 18, 1743, an ordinance was issued by Vau-
dreuil and Salmon which compelled the planters to build

132 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [um

their levees before January 1, 1744, under penalty of
confiscation of their lands. The governor and his com-
missary gave also much attention to the question of the
currency in the colony; but the vexed question of card
or paper money and of notes was not settled then or at
any other time during the French domination in Loui-
siana. Vaudreuil was a wise administrator, but he cer-
tainly made a mistake when he granted to the Sieur
Deruisseau the exclusive privilege of trading on the
Missouri and its tributaries.

In 1741 the great War of the Austrian Succession
broke out in Europe, and Maria Theresa, aided by Eng-
land, had to resist the attacks of France and Prussia.
Vaudreuil, on hearing of the declaration of war, prepared
to resist any invasion of the British and displayed great
activity and prudence. Unfortunately, like nearly all
his predecessors, he quarreled with his intendant or
commissaire ordonnateur, Lenormant, who was soon re-
placed by Michel de la Rouvilliere. The latter and the
governor issued interesting police regulations with re-
gard to the negroes, and to coffee-houses, of which six
were allowed in New Orleans. It was forbidden to give
drink to any soldier or to negroes and savages, and to
any one on feast days and on Sundays during divine
service.

The good understanding between Vaudreuil and La
Rouvilliere did not last long, and the commissary wrote
very disparaging letters about his chief. This does not
seem to have injured the governor with the French gov-
ernment. He belonged to an influential family, and he

1751] THE SUGAR-CANE 133

obtained a large increase in the number of soldiers to
serve in Louisiana. He undertook an expedition against
the Chickasaws in 1752, but accomplished little besides
burning and devastating their country. The Marquis,
however, remained in high favor at court, and was pro-
moted in 1752 to the governorship of Canada, where he
displayed great ability and courage in the French wars
with the English.

In 1751, during Vaudreuil's administration, the sugar-
cane was introduced in Louisiana. A vessel carrying
soldiers to the colony stopped at Hispaniola, and the Je-
suits on that island asked to be allowed to send to the
Jesuits in Louisiana a quantity of cane, to see whether
it could be cultivated on the banks of the Mississippi.
The Jesuit Fathers planted the cane on their plantation,
which was then just above the city, and to their spirit of
enterprise and their enlightened policy we owe one of the
greatest benefits ever rendered Louisiana, the introduc-
tion of the sugar-cane. Joseph Dubreuil, in 1758, estab-
lished a large sugar plantation, and he erected the first
sugar-mill in Louisiana. Others followed his example,
but the sugar was of inferior quality, for want of a
knowledge of the granulating process. Destrehan, Du-
breuil, and others, before 1765, had made sugar that an-
swered the purposes of home consumption, but in that
year a ship-load was sent to France. The granulating
process had been so imperfect that half of the sugar es-
caped from the casks before the vessel reached port.

The Jesuits were also cultivating on their land indigo
and the myrtle-wax shrub, which, for a time, was con-

134 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [wra

sidered very valuable. It produced a wax that was ex-
tensively used for making candles.

The ships that brought the sugar-cane brought also
sixty poor girls who were sent at the King's expense. 11
They were the last that the mother country supplied, and
were given in marriage to soldiers whose good conduct
entitled them to a discharge. Land was allotted to each
couple, with a cow and a calf, a cock and five hens, a gun,
an ax, and a hoe; and during the first three years ra-
tions were issued to them, with a small quantity of pow-
der, shot, and grain for seed.

In 1752 Macarty took command of Fort Chartres of
the Illinois, which district comprised six villages: Kas-
kaskia, Fort Chartres, Caokias, Prairie des Rochers, St.
Philip, and Ste. Genevieve. In 1754 Colonel Washing-
ton surprised the French under Jumonville near the
Great Meadows, and the latter was killed. 12 His brother,
Louis Coulon de Villiers, was sent by Contre-Coeur, com-
mandant at Fort Duquesne, to avenge Jumonville's
death. De Villiers attacked Washington at Fort Neces-
sity, and forced him to capitulate on July 4, 1754.

Bossu, a French officer stationed in Louisiana, wrote
from New Orleans on July 1, 1751, that Governor Vau-
dreuil received very hospitably the troops that had come
from France. He spoke of the inhabitants of Louisiana,
and said: 13

One calls Creoles those who are born of a Frenchman and a
Frenchwoman or of a European woman. The Creoles, in general,
are very brave, tall and well made ; they have many talents for the
arts and the sciences ; but as they cannot cultivate them perfectly

w«] KERLEREC 135

on account of the scarcity of good teachers, the rich and sensible
fathers do not fail to send their children to France, as to the
first school in the world in all tilings. As to the sex that has no
other duty to perform but that of pleasing, it is born here with that
advantage and has no need to go to seek the deceitful art in
Europe.

Speaking of New Orleans, Bossu said:

That town is situated on the banks of the Mississippi, one of the
largest rivers in the world, since it waters more than eight hun-
dred leagues of known country. Its pure and delicious waters
flow for forty leagues in the midst of a number of plantations
which form a charming sight on its two banks, where one enjoys
abundantly the pleasures of hunting, fishing, and all the other
delights of life.

Bossu regrets very much the departure of the Marquis
de Vaudreuil, and mentions in no flattering terms the
latter's successor, Kerlerec, 14 who arrived in New Or-
leans on February 3, 1753, saying: "He has qualities
of heart very different from those of his predecessor ; but
this new governor may give as an excuse that he did not
come so far only for a change of air." Kerlerec, however,
was a brave captain in the royal navy, and had distin-
guished himself in several engagements. He agreed ad-
mirably, strange to say, with the commissary d'Auber-
ville. Some time after his arrival in the colony occurred
a tragic event, which Bossu relates with great indig-
nation.

Not far from Ship Island, where Iberville landed in
February, 1699, is Cat Island. In 1757, says Bossu, Gov-

136 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [hot

ernor Kerlerec appointed the Sieur Duroux as comman-
dant on that island, and gave him a detachment of
marines and of the Swiss regiment of Halwyl. Du-
roux acted in a most arbitrary and cruel manner: he
compelled the soldiers to cultivate his garden and to
do all kinds of work for him, and punished those who
refused to submit to him by tying them naked to a
tree, exposed to the mosquitoes. He gave the garrison
bread made of flour that had been taken from the wreck
of a Spanish ship, and sold for his own profit the flour
sent by the government. The soldiers complained to
Kerlerec, but the governor refused to listen to them.
They resolved, therefore, to take justice into their own
hands, and one day, when Duroux was returning from
a hunting expedition, he was shot by the men on shore,
as soon as he landed, and his body was thrown into
the sea. The soldiers then liberated a planter named
Beaudreau, 1 r> whom Duroux had put in irons for re-
fusing to share with him some goods that had been saved
from the wreck of a Spanish ship. The revolted sol-
diers pillaged the stores on Ship Island, and compelled
Beaudreau to show them the route leading to the Caro-
linas. When they arrived in the country of an Indian
chief called by the French the Emperor of the Kaouytas,
they dismissed Beaudreau and gave him a certificate,
which proved that they had forced him to serve as guide.
Part of the soldiers went to the English colonies, but
those who remained with the savages were soon captured.
A Swiss corporal committed suicide to avoid the horrible
torture that he knew awaited him, and the other crim-

1758] TRAGEDY AT CAT ISLAND 137

inals were taken to Mobile. In the mean time the two
sons of Beaudreau arrived from New Orleans at Mobile,
bearers, without their knowledge, of an order to the
commandant De Velle to arrest Beaudreau, who was
then on his plantation and not suspecting that he would
be troubled for the involuntary part he had taken in the
tragedy at Cat Island. The accused were taken to New
Orleans and judged by a court martial. Beaudreau and
one soldier were condemned to be broken on the wheel
and their bodies thrown into the river, and a Swiss soldier
was condemned to be placed in a coffin and be sawed alive
through the middle of the body, according to the custom
of the Swiss regiment.

We regret that such a cruel execution should have
taken place in New Orleans in 1758, but we should hardly
expect to find there a more humane administration of
justice than in Europe, where criminals were tortured in
a horrible manner, as is proved by the execution of Da-
miens, the would-be murderer of Louis XV. It is im-
possible to excuse the execution of Beaudreau, who was
innocent and was highly esteemed in the colony. He
had great influence with the Indians, and had been
adopted by the Choctaws as a member of their tribe.

In 1756 the Seven Years' War began in Europe, but
hostilities had already begun in America between the
French and the English. The latter threatened Louisi-
ana continually, and Kerlerec had great trouble in keep-
ing the powerful tribes of the Choctaws and the Aliba-
mons faithful to the French. The friendship of the
Indians had really to be bought continually with presents

138 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [itsb

which, said Kerlerec, were cheaper than would be the
expenses of war. He reported that in 1758 the Choctaws
had fifty-two villages and four thousand warriors, and
the Alibamons three thousand warriors. Yet, in spite of
the menacing attitude of the English, the number of
troops in Louisiana was greatly diminished in 1759 by
order of the French government. Little attention was
paid to the colonies by the wretched King Louis XV,
who was disgracing France by his dissolute life and by
his weak and incompetent administration. Help was
even asked of Spain for Louisiana in 1761, as it was said
that the province served as a barrier between the English
and the Spanish colonies. Louisiana was as badly gov-
erned as France, and discord reigned during Kerlerec's
administration. First there was a so-called religious war
between the Capuchins and the Jesuits, represented re-
spectively by Father Dagobert and Father Beaudoin;
then there were violent dissensions between the governor
and the commissary Rochemore, and the colony not only
made no progress but seemed to be retrograding. The
unsuccessful wars of Louis XV hardly allowed any help
to be given to Louisiana, and the unwise financial policy
of the government caused great distress by the instability
of the currency. In June, 1761, Rochemore was replaced
by Foucault, who soon began the game of duplicity that
nearly cost him his life a few years later. He appeared
to be on good terms with Kerlerec, and yet his reports
to the French minister were very damaging to the gov-
ernor.

Among the officers who sided with Rochemore against

1760] OPPONENTS OF KERLEREC 139

Kerlerec were some of the most distinguished men in
Louisiana, such as Grondel, D'Hauterive, D'Herneu-
ville, Belle-Isle, and Marigny de Mandeville. The last-
named, says Bossu, formed the plan of making new dis-
coveries in the direction of Barataria Island, and made
a general map of the colony. Simarre de Belle-Isle had
had a most romantic career. In 1719, while on board
a vessel bound for Louisiana, he went ashore in St. Ber-
nard Bay with four friends in a boat that had been sent
to get drinking-water. Having gone hunting, Belle-
Isle and his friends were abandoned by the French vessel,
and after a few days Belle-Isle alone survived. He wan-
dered about, and finally gave himself up to the Attakapas
Indians, who were cannibals. He was saved by a widow
who took him for her slave, and after some time he was
adopted as a warrior by the tribe. He was rescued by
St. Denis, commandant at Natchitoches, who had heard
through some Indians of the presence of a white man
among the Attakapas. Bienville, Avho was then gov-
ernor, received Belle-Isle very kindly, and the former
Indian brave soon became again a trusted French officer.
The war between the English and the French in Amer-
ica ended by the defeat of the latter, in spite of a heroic
resistance. In 1758 Fort Duquesne was captured, and
in a despatch from Macarty, commandant at Fort Char-
tres, Aubry, De Villiers, and De Verges were mentioned
for their bravery. The garrison of Fort Duquesne went
to New Orleans, and Kerlerec had barracks erected for
them in the lower part of the town. Some of the inhabi-
tants left the country invaded by the English, and set-

IK) A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

1700

tied in Louisiana. In 1754 several families from Lor-
raine had arrived in the colony and had been sent as
settlers to the German Coast, a few miles above New Or-
leans, on the Mississippi River.

The Seven Years' War ended disastrously for France
in Europe, Canada, and India, and the French King
lost all his colonies in America, and nearly all in India.
Louis XY, in his selfishness, cared not for the fate of the
people who had struggled valiantly to remain French-
men. He gave little help to Canada, and the loss of that
province induced him to get rid of Louisiana, which had
been a source of expense to the mother country. The
corrupt monarch who reigned at Versailles did not un-
derstand the attachment of the Louisianians for France,
and gave their country to Spain without consulting them.

■•v

CHAPTER VIII

The Cession of Louisiana to Spain— The
Revolution of 1768

Choiseul— The treaty of Fontainebleau in 1763— The treaty of Paris in
1763— Names of officials and officers in 1763— Damaging report against
Kerlerec— Expulsion of the Jesuits— West Florida— The Indians regret the
French— Transfer of Mobile to the British— The Indians leave the British
— Little Manchac— First arrival of the Acadians— Establishment of a print-
ing-press—Letter of Louis XV announcing the cession to Spain— Charles
III of Spain— Nyon de Villiers abandons Fort Chartres— Death of D' Abba-
die — Aubry — Discontent of the colonists — Arrivals of Acadians— Sketch
of the expulsion of the Acadians by the British— Names of officers at end of
French domination— Don Antonio de Ulloa — UUoa's unwise ordinance of
September 6, 1766— Petition of the merchants of New Orleans — Ulloa's
haughtiness and lack of tact— Intense cold in 1769— Aubry's position— The
Revolution of 1768 — The Council adopts Lafreniere's conclusions— Fou-
cault's opinion — Aubry's protest — Ulloa's departure— Delegates sent to
France— Letters to Praslin and to the King — Address of the Council— In-
vestigation about "vexations" committed by Ulloa— Letter of the inhabi-
tants to Praslin — Ulloa's council— Life and works of Ulloa— Baudry des
Loziere's opinion of Lafreniere — Lafreniere's chief associates— Noble sen-
timents of the Louisianians — Expulsion of the Spanish frigate.

N July 4, 1754, when Washington
capitulated at Fort Necessity, the
French remained sole masters of the
entire Mississippi valley and of
Canada; but in September, 1759,
the heroic commanders Montcalm
and Wolfe fell at Quebec, which
was captured by the British, and on September 8, 1760,

HI

142 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ura

by the capitulation at Montreal, Canada ceased to be a
French province. A few months later, while the Duke de
Choiseul ! was endeavoring to bring about peace between
France and England, he said to Stanley, according to
Bancroft, " I wonder that your great Pitt should be so at-
tached to the acquisition of Canada. The inferiority of its
population will never suffer it to be dangerous, and, being
in the hands of France, it will always be of service to
you to keep your colonies in that dependence which they
will not fail to shake off the moment Canada shall be
ceded "; and Bancroft adds, " And he readily consented
to abandon that province to England." 2 Choiseul was
a wise minister, but he had not been able to repair the
harm done by the corrupt, incompetent, and tortuous pol-
icy of Louis XV, who alone should be held responsible
for the disasters of his reign. On August 15, 1761,
Choiseul concluded the " Family Compact," which was
designed to unite all the branches of the house of Bour-
bon as a counterpoise to the maritime ascendancy of Eng-
land. Spain promised to declare war against England
on May 1, 1762, if peace was not concluded. The great
William Pitt continued the war, but, owing to the hostil-
ity of George III, he resigned his office. The success of
the English continued, however, and Martinique and
other West India islands, Havana, and Manila were cap-
tured. Finally, preliminaries of peace were signed on
November 3, 1762, between France and Spain on the
one side, and England and Portugal on the other. On
the same day, by an act passed at Fontainebleau and
signed by Choiseul for France and by Grimaldi for

n63] CESSION TO SPAIN 143

Spain, Louis XV, " by the pure effect of the generosity
of his heart, and on account of the affection and friend-
ship " which he felt for his cousin, Charles III of Spain,
made to the latter a gift of " the country known by the
name of Louisiana, as well as New Orleans and the isl-
and in which that city is situated." s The King of Spain
accepted the gift on November 13, 1762. The King of
France had been touched by the sacrifices made by his
Catholic Majesty to bring about peace and " was de-
sirous to give to him a proof of the great interest he took
in his satisfaction and in the advantages of his crown."
It is a pity that Choiseul should have signed such a dis-
graceful state paper. Bancroft says of him: " It was
the judgment of Pitt, that he was the greatest minister
France had seen since the days of Richelieu. In depth,
refinement, and quipk perception, he had no superior;
and his freedom from prejudice opened his mind and
affections to the philosophic movement of the age." It
was Choiseul who acquired from Genoa, in 1768, the
island of Corsica, where Napoleon Bonaparte was born
on August 15, 1769. When Madame Du Barry caused
the fall of Choiseul in 1770, the doom of the monarchy
Avas sealed, and Louis XV could truly say, " After me
the deluge."

The treaty of Fontainebleau was kept secret; and on
February 10, 1763, the shameful treaty of Paris was
signed. France ceded to Great Britain, by article seven,
the river and port of Mobile and all the possessions on
the left bank of the Mississippi, with the exception of the
town of New Orleans and the island in which it is situ-

1U A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nea

ated. Spain, in its turn, ceded to Great Britain the
province of Florida, with the fort of St. Augustine, and
all the country to the east and southeast of the Missis-
sippi. Havana was returned to Spain, and Guadeloupe
and Martinique to France.

The King of France continued to act as the possessor
of Louisiana, since the treaty of Fontainebleau of No-
vember 3, 1762, was still kept secret. On January 1,
1763, Nicolas Chauvin de Lafreniere was named at-
torney-general; on February 10, 1763, Foucault was
named controller; and on March 16 the King announced
that, as he had decided to reorganize the troops serving
in his province of Louisiana, and to keep at New Orleans
only a counting-house, with four companies of infantry
merely for protection and police duty, he had established
there a director and commandant. 4 DAbbadie was ap-
pointed to that office and arrived in New Orleans on June
29, 1763. Aubry was named commandant of the four
companies of infantry. The captains were De Maze-
lieres, Du Plessis de la Perriere, De Vaugine ; the lieuten-
ants, De l'Hommer, Laforest de Laumont, De Belle-
Isle, Cabaret de Trepis; the ensigns, La Grancpurt, De
Yin, Vaucourt de St. Amant, Dubralet; majors at New
Orleans, De Grandmaison, Regnier; captain of the port,
Faures; surveyor, De Lalande.

During Kerlerec's administration there had been great
discord in the colony, between the Capuchins and the
Jesuits, and between the governor and the royal com-
missary, Rochemore. The latter brought charges against
Kerlerec ; an investigation was ordered, and the following

1763] DEPARTURE OF KERLEREC 145

damaging report against the governor was made: " It
follows from the papers submitted to our inspection, 1st,
that Rochemore has kept himself within the limits of
his office, while Kerlerec has always abused his powers.
2d, that Kerlerec has not only violated the ordinances
by receiving interloping vessels, without being compelled
by necessity, since at that time the colony was not in
want, but that he has committed a great imprudence,
knowing that those interlopers were spies; that, besides,
it is probable that interest has guided him in these circum-
stances, his secretary and himself having relations with
Jamaica, whence came most of the interlopers. Another
fact is, that the interlopers, according to a law established
by M. de Kerlerec, were to land at New Orleans, and
nowhere else in the colony; otherwise, they were not
admitted, whatever were the needs of the colony; that,
besides, Kerlerec, according to the allegation of Roche-
more, has received ten thousand livres from an inter-
loper to assure himself that he would return to bring
what he (Kerlerec) needed; but that, on his return,
the said interloper has not been able, by order of Ker-
lerec, to go up the river to New Orleans, or to get back
his money." B

On the arrival of D'Abbadie, Kerlerec departed for
France, where he was thrown into the Bastille. He was
liberated some time afterward and died in 1770. He
had rendered great services in the French navy before
he became governor of Louisiana. In spite of the report
against him, it is not now believed that he was dishonest.
The probability is, that, at the time of the governor's

146 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nra

downfall, Rochemore was more powerful at court than
Kerlerec.

M. de Vergennes, minister of Louis XVI, wrote for
that King a paper on Louisiana, in which he gives a
rapid description of the country and a brief history of
the colony, from its settlement by Iberville to the trans-
fer to Spain. He calls attention to the numerous faults
committed in the administration of Louisiana, and to the
injustice so often done to the Indians. He ends his paper
by these noble and energetic words: " On the conclusion
of the treaty of Versailles, one should have remembered
that when Camillus was named dictator, his first act of
authority was to break the treaty that was about to be
concluded with the Gauls; he did not calculate the des-
perate state in which the republic was, but he wished to
prevent its dishonor."

The Jesuits were driven from Louisiana in 1763, and
their property, which was confiscated, was sold for about
nine hundred thousand livres. They returned in 1835
and established flourishing schools.

The province of West Florida was erected from that
part of Louisiana ceded by Spain to Great Britain,
together with Pensacola, and Captain George Johnston
was appointed governor. Major Loftus was appointed
commandant at the Illinois, and arrived at Pensacola
with Captain Johnston. The former endeavored to pro-
ceed to his post by boat from New Orleans ; but his party
was fired upon by the Indians, and he was obliged to
return to New Orleans, whence he sailed to Pensacola.
The Indians regretted very much the domination of the

nw] LITTLE MANCHAC 147

French, ami when the latter, as they abandoned Canada,
sailed down the valley of the Mississippi, " they received
on every side," says Bancroft, " the expressions of pas-
sionate attachment from the many tribes of red men."

Fort Conde, at Mobile, received the name of Fort
Charlotte, for the wife of George III, and on October
20, 1763, Mobile and that part of Louisiana ceded by
France to Great Britain were transferred to Robert
Farmar, British commissioner, by De Velle, comman-
dant, and Fazende, acting commissaire ordonnateur. On
November 23, Fort Tombecbe was delivered also to the
British.

Some of the Indians left the country ceded to the
English, and settled among the French. D'Abbadie
allowed the Tensas and the Alibamons to establish them-
selves on the Mississippi near Bayou Lafourche. The
English, on their way up the river to Bayou Manchac
and Baton Rouge, stopped a little above New Orleans,
and an illegal traffic with them was overlooked on account
of its great advantage to the inhabitants. " The spot,"
says Martin, " at which they stopped on their way up the
river, under the pretense of going to Bayou Manchac
and Baton Rouge, received the appellation of Little
Manchac."

On April 6, 1764, D'Abbadie announced the arrival in
New Orleans of four Acadian families, twenty persons.
They had come from New York.

In 1764 D'Abbadie obtained for the Sieur Braud the
exclusive privilege of establishing a printing-press and
selling books in the colony. Braud's press was to be of

148 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [no*

great value to the colonists in their heroic struggle in
1768 against Spanish oppression.

In Octoher, 1764, Director-General dAbbadie re-
ceived an official communication announcing the cession
to Spain and ordering the transfer of the province to
the Spanish officials. The letter is of such importance
that we translate it in full from the original:

At Versailles, April 21, 1764.

M. d'Abbadie, by a private act passed at Fontainebleau, on
November 3, 1762, having ceded, of my free will, to my very
dear and beloved cousin, the King of Spain, and to his successors
and heirs, in full ownership, purely and simply, and without
any exception, all the county known by the name of Louisiana,
as well as New Orleans and the island in which it is situated;
and by another act passed at the Escurial, signed by the King
of Spain, on November 13 of the same year, His Catholic Ma-
jesty having accepted the cession of the country of Louisiana
and of the city of New Orleans, according to the copy of the
said acts which you will find hereto annexed, I write you this
letter to tell you that my intention is, that on receipt of the
present letter and of the copies annexed, whether they reach you
by the officers of His Catholic Majesty, or directly by the French
vessels to which they will be entrusted, you should deliver into
the hands of the governor or any officer appointed to that effect
by the King of Spain, the said country and colony of Louisiana,
and dependent posts, together with the city and the island of
New Orleans, such as they shall be on the day of the said cession,
wishing that in the future they should belong to His Catholic
Majesty to be governed and administered by his governors and
officers, as belonging to him in full ownership and without ex-
ception.

I order you, in consequence, as soon as the governor and troops

1764] LETTER OF LOUIS XV 149

of that monarch shall have arrived in the said country and col-
ony, to put them in possession, and to withdraw all the officers,
soldiers, and employes at my service who shall he in garrison
there, to send to France, or to my other colonies of America,
those who would not wish to remain under the Spanish domination.

I desire, besides, that after the entire evacuation of the said
port and city of New Orleans, you should collect all the papers
relative to the finances and to the administration of the colony
of Louisiana, and come to France to render an account of them.

My intention is, nevertheless, that you should deliver to the
said governor, or officer appointed for that purpose, all the
papers or documents that concern specially the government of
this colony, either with reference to the savages or the different
posts, after taking proper receipts for your discharge, and that
you should give to the said governor all the information in your
power, to place him in a condition to govern the said colony
to the reciprocal satisfaction of the two nations.

It is my will that there be an inventory signed double between
you and the commissary of His Catholic Majesty, of all the ar-
tillery, and all effects, stores, hospitals, sea vessels, etc., which
belong in the said colony, in order that after you have placed the
said commissary in possession of the civil buildings and edifices,
there may be drawn a proces verbal of the valuation of the said
effects which will remain in the colony, and of which the price
will be reimbursed by His Catholic Majesty according to the
said valuation.

I hope, at the same time, for the advantage and tranquillity
of the inhabitants of the colony of Louisiana, and I flatter myself,
in consequence of the friendship and affection of His Catholic
Majesty, that he will be pleased to give orders to his governor or
any other officer employed at his service in the said colony and
city of New Orleans, that the ecclesiastics and religious houses
attending to curacies and missions shall continue to perform
their functions and to enjoy the rights, privileges, and exemp-

150 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [itm

tions that have been granted to them by the titles of their estab-
lishments ; that the judges of ordinary jurisdiction, as well as
the Superior Council, shall continue to administer justice ac-
cording to the laws, forms, and usages of the colony ; that the in-
habitants shall be confirmed in the ownership of their lands in
accordance with the concessions made by the governors and com-
missaries [commlssaires ordonnateurs] of the said colony; and
that the said concessions shall be considered and held as confirmed
by His Catholic Majesty, although they may not yet have been
confirmed by me; hoping, moreover, that His Catholic Majesty
will be pleased to give to his subjects of Louisiana the marks
of protection and good will which they have received under my
domination, and which only the misfortunes of war have pre-
vented from being more effectual.

I order you to have my present letter registered at the Su-
perior Council of New Orleans, in order that the different es-
tates of the colony be informed of its contents, and may have
recourse to it, if need be, the present letter being to no other
purpose.

I pray to God, M. d'Abbadie, to have you in his holy protec-
tion. [Signed by the King and the Duke de Choiseul.] G

Louisiana, therefore, was to pass from the domination
of Louis XV to that of Charles III. Had it not been
that they were handed over like cattle by one master to
another, the Louisianians should have felt relieved to
be no longer the subjects of the infamous King who had
been the cause of the disasters of his country. Charles
III of Spain was a far better man and an abler ruler than
the Bourbon of Versailles. He was the son of Philip
V, whom the armies of his grandfather, Louis XIV, had
maintained on the throne of Spain. Charles was born in
1716; his mother was Elizabeth Farnese, and in 1731 he

17«4] CHARLES HI 151

took possession of the duchies of Parma and Placentia,
which had heen guaranteed to him by treaties in case
of extinction of the Farneses. During the War of the
Polish Succession he took possession of Naples and of
Sicily, and he was recognized as King of the Two Sici-
lies by the treaty of Vienna in 1738. On the death of
his brother, Ferdinand VI, in 1759, he became King
of Spain and ceded the Two Sicilies to one of his sons.
Charles III died in 1788 and was succeeded by his son
Charles IV, during whose reign Louisiana was re-ceded
to France in 1800. The signature, so haughty and so
conceited, " Yo el Rey," of the Spanish monarchs re-
placed for many years, on official documents concerning
Louisiana, the simple " Louis " of the French monarchs.

On June 15, 1704, Nyon de Villiers, commandant at
the Illinois, after waiting a long time for the arrival of
the British, left the country ceded to the latter, and ar-
rived in Xew Orleans on July 2, with six officers, sixty-
three soldiers, and eighty civilians, including the women
and the children. The savages were very hostile to
the British, and it was not till 1765 that they took pos-
session of Fort Chartres. " St. Ange," says Martin,
" the French commandant there, crossed the Mississippi
with a number of his countrymen, who were desirous to
follow the white flag, and laid the foundation of the town
of St. Louis, 7 which, with that of St. Genevieve, was the
first settlement of the country now known as the State
of Missouri."

On February 4, 1705, DAbbadie died, greatly re-
gretted by every one in Louisiana, and Aubry succeeded

152 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ires

him as commandant or governor. His name is connected
not creditably with the saddest and most glorious event
in the colonial history of Louisiana. When the colonists
heard, in October, 1764, of the cession to Spain, they
were thrown into consternation and despair. They were
greatly attached to France, and some of them had left
the part of the province ceded to England, in order to
remain Frenchmen. A meeting was held in New Or-
leans of delegates from every parish, and Lafreniere, the
attorney-general, made a speech in which he suggested
that a petition be sent to the King, begging him not to
give away his subjects to another monarch. The colonists
were not aware of the infamy of the King, and they
hoped that he would be touched by their expressions of
devotion and love. Jean Milhet, the richest merchant
in New Orleans, was sent to France as the representative
of the Louisianians. As soon as he arrived in Paris he
went to see Bienville, the father of Louisiana, who was
then eighty-six years old. This venerable and distin-
guished man called with Milhet on Choiseul, who re-
ceived them very kindly, but did not allow them to see
the King. Milhet failed in his efforts, and Bienville had
the sorrow of seeing his beloved Louisiana become a
Spanish province. He died in Paris on March 7, 1768.
On February 28, 1765, 8 Foucault, the commissaire or-
donnateur, wrote to the minister that a few days previ-
ously several Acadian families, to the number of one hun-
dred and ninety-three persons, had come over from Santo
Domingo. They were poor, and worthy of pity, and as-
sistance was given to them until they could choose lands

ires] THE ACADIANS 153

at the Opelousas and be in a condition to help themselves.
On May 4 Foucault announced the arrival of eighty more
Acadians, whom he intended to send to the Attakapas;
and on May 13, of forty-eight Acadian families, which
he sent also to the Opelousas and the Attakapas. On
November 1G, 1766, Foucault announced the arrival from
Halifax of two hundred and sixteen Acadians. Gayarre
says lands on both sides of the Mississippi, above the Ger-
man Coast, were given to them, and they settled there as
far as Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee.

On April 30, 1765, 9 Aubry says it cost 15,500 livres
to provide for the needs of the Acadian families, two
hundred persons, recently arrived, and that it will cost as
much for the next six months. Foucault says, according
to Margry, that they were established at the Aodoussae,
sixty leagues from New Orleans.

Judge Martin, in his History of Louisiana, says the
Acadians arrived in 1755 and received lands along the
Mississippi coast, which later was called the Acadian
Coast. Martin, however, gives no authority for his state-
ment.

Foucault says it was on account of their religion that
the Acadians left their country. The fact is, that most
of those who came to Louisiana had been ruthlessly torn
from their northern homes by the English in 1755.

By the treaty of Utrecht 10 it had been stipulated that
the Acadians might withdraw to the French possessions
if they chose. There is no doubt that the English gov-
ernors did all in their power to prevent the emigration
to Cape Breton or to Canada. As they were not harsh,

154 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [u«

as a rule, to the inhabitants, the latter preferred to re-
main in the country of their ancestors. But, for a long
time, they refused to take the oath of allegiance to the
English sovereign ; and when a part of the men took the
oath, it was with a tacit, if not expressed, understanding
that they should never be compelled to bear arms against
the French. That the priests in Acadia, and even the
Governor of Canada, tried to keep the inhabitants faith-
ful to the French King, in spite of their being English
subjects, there is no reasonable doubt. We can hardly
blame this feeling, if we consider what great rivalry there
was at the time between the English and the French in
America, and also the spirit of intolerance then every-
where prevalent. The priests must have considered it
a duty on their part to try to harm the English heretics;
and although we may not approve the act of some of
them, nor the duplicity of some of the French agents,
we do not find in their conduct any excuse for the cruelty
of the English.

Seeing how disaffected the Acadians were with their
new masters, the Marquis Cornwallis, in 1749, laid the
foundations of Halifax as a protection against Louis-
bourg. Some of the inhabitants had escaped from the
colony at the instigation of L'Abbe le Loutre, says Park-
man, and had gone to the adjoining French settlements.
Their lot was sad, as the French were not able to pro-
vide for them, and the English would receive them only
as English subjects. It is not astonishing that they
should make a kind of guerrilla war with their Indian
allies against the English, and that they should excite

1705] THE ACADIANS 155

their countrymen against the conquerors. It must be
admitted that the English were in great peril in the
midst of men openly or secretly hostile to them; but no
necessity of war can justify tho measures taken to rid
English Nova Scotia of her French Acadians.

In 1755 the Governor of Acadia, Charles Lawrence,
resolved to expel the French from the posts which they
still held in the colony. A force of eighteen hundred
men, commanded by Colonel Monckton, sailed from New
England and captured Fort Beausejour, which the cow-
ardly and vile commandant, Vergor, surrendered at the
first attack. On the Plains of Abraham he was also to
be the first to yield to Wolfe, and to cause the defeat
and death of the brave Montcalm, the fall of Quebec, and
the loss of Canada.

After the capture of Beausejour, Fort Gaspereau sur-
rendered also, and there was no longer any obstacle to
prevent Lawrence from accomplishing a design which
he must have been cherishing for some time. The gov-
ernor determined to remove from the province all the
French Acadians. He required from the inhabitants an
oath of unqualified allegiance, and on their refusal he
resolved to proceed to extreme measures. Parkman says
that " the Acadians, though calling themselves neu-
trals, were an enemy encamped in the heart of the prov-
ince," and adds: " These are the reasons which explain
and palliate a measure too harsh and indiscriminate to
be wholly justified."

It is impossible to justify the measure in any way; fear
of an enemy does not justify his murder, and the ex-

136 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ires

pulsion of the Acadians was the cause of untold misery,
hoth physical and moral, and of the death of a number
of men, women, and children. If the harsh removal of
the Acadians is justifiable, so is Bonaparte's massacre
of the prisoners of Jaffa. He could not provide for
them as prisoners, and if he released them they would
immediately attack him again.

Governor Lawrence was the more inexcusable because
the only Acadians that gave him any cause of anxiety
were those of Beausejour, and they had been defeated.
The inhabitants of the Basin of Minas and of Annapolis
were peaceful, prosperous, and contented, and although
they might have sided with the French in an invasion
of the province, they never would have thought of re-
volting against the English. They were an ignorant
and simple people, but laborious, chaste, and religious.
Their chief defect seems to have been an inordinate love
for litigation, a trait which they inherited from their
Norman ancestors. Lawrence took away the guns of
many of the inhabitants by an unworthy stratagem, and
then he ordered the ruthless work to be done. Monck-
ton seized the men of Beausejour, and Winslow, Hand-
field, and Murray did the same at Grand-Pre, at An-
napolis, and at Fort Edward.

Winslow issued a proclamation calling upon all the
men to meet him at the village church on Sunday. There
he was at the appointed hour with his two hundred and
ninety men fully armed, to meet the intended victims.
Four hundred and eighteen men answered the call and
assembled in the church. What was their consternation

1765] THE ACADIANS 157

on hearing that they Avere prisoners, that all their prop-
erty was confiscated, and that they were to he torn from
their homes with their families. No resistance was pos-
sihle, as the men were unarmed. They were put for safe
keeping on hoard four ships, and on October 8 the
men, women, and children were embarked. This was
" le grand derangement " of which their descendants, says
Li'Abbe Casgrain, speak to this day. Winslow completed
his work in December and shipped twenty-five hundred
and ten persons. Murray, Monckton, and Handheld were
equally successful, and more than six thousand persons
were violently expelled from the colony. A few managed
to escape, although they were tracked like wild beasts. In
order to compel them to surrender, the dwellings and even
the churches were burned and the crops were destroyed.
The fugitives suffered frightfully, and many women and
children died in misery. In this scene of persecution we
are glad to see the brave officer Boishebert defeat a party
of English who were burning a church at Peticodiac.
Unhappily, no resistance could be made, and the unfor-
tunates were huddled together like sheep on board the
transports, to be scattered along the Atlantic coast among
a hostile people speaking a language unknown to them,
and having a creed different from their own.

The families were not always on the same ship; the
father and mother, in some instances, were separated
from their children; and many Evangelines never met
their Gabriels. The lot of the exiles in the English col-
onies was generally hard. Very few remained where they
had been transported. Many returned to their country

158 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [in*

after incredible sufferings, to be again expelled in 1762;
some went to France, where they formed a settlement at
Belle-Isle; some went to the Antilles; and some at last
found a true home in hospitable Louisiana. At the peace
of 1763 some of the Acadians returned to Nova Scotia;
and their descendants, together with those of the inhabi-
tants who had escaped from the persecution, number now,
according to LAbbe Casgrain, more than 130,000 souls.

It is interesting to note the names of the officers in
Louisiana at the end of the French domination. The
following is a list of those to whom commissions had been
given: n De Macarty, lieutenant de roi at New Orleans;
De la Houssaye, major at New Orleans; Du Barry, ma-
jor at New Orleans; Renaud de Coudreau, lieutenant
of the company of canonniers bombardiers in Louisiana.
Captains: Aubert, Trudeau, De Lusser, De Portneuf,
Chevalier Dufossat, De l'Hommer, Fleuriau, Voisin.
Lieutenants: Roullin, Peschon, Le Blanc, Chevalier de
Lusser, De Livaudais aine, Charles Dessalles, Dorio-
court, Chevalier de Rouville, Adam, De St. Denis aine,
De Belle-Isle, Laforest de Laumont, Chevalier de la
Ronde, Dussuau, Boisseau, Ricard, Chevalier de Villiers.
Ensigns: Lantagnac, Girardeau cadet, De Bachemin,
Lalande Dalcourt, Baudin, Vedrine, De Vin, Pellerin,
D'Arensbourg aine, Duverger aine, De la Vau, De La-
touche, Duverger Toubadon, Chevalier de Glapion, Mon-
gin, DArensbourg cadet, De Velle, Enould de Livau-
dais, Kernion, Dutisne. Captain of the gates of the city
of New Orleans, Charles Joseph Le Blanc.

The cross of St. Louis was sent in 1759 to Captain de

1766] ULLOA 159

Pontalba, in 1764 to Captain de Favrot and to Comman-
dant Nyon de Villiers, in 1765 to Marest de la Tour, De
Bonille, D'Arensbourg, and De Lavergne.

Milhet announced to the Louisianians the failure of
his mission; hut the colonists had begun to hope that
Spain would not take possession of Louisiana. On July
10, 1765, however, Don Antonio de Ulloa wrote from
Havana to Aubry that he had been appointed governor
of Louisiana by the King of Spain. He arrived in New
Orleans on March 5, 1766. The Spanish King had not
appeared very anxious to take possession of his new do-
minions. More than three years had elapsed from the
date of the secret treaty of Fontainebleau, by which
France had ceded Louisiana to Spain, before a Spanish
official appeared in the colony, and when that official did
arrive he came nearly alone and did not publicly assume
authority. Aubry, nevertheless, recognized him as the
representative of the King of Spain, and issued orders
in the King's name. Ulloa had with him only two com-
panies of infantry, commanded by Piernas and composed
of ninety men. The French soldiers refused to enter the
service of Spain, declaring that the term of their enlist-
ment had expired. The Spanish governor, therefore, de-
layed taking possession officially until he should have
more troops to sustain his authority. Three Spanish offi-
cers had accompanied him — Loyola, commissary of war;
Navarro, intendant; and Gayarre, contador or president
of the court of accounts.

The condition of affairs in the colony was very unfor-
tunate ; for LTlloa's orders, issued through Aubry, did not

160 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA litcg

appear binding on the inhabitants, and merely irritated
them. Such was the case especially with an ordinance
dated September 6, 1766, by which " it is ordered that
all captains coming from Santo Domingo, as well as
those who come from France, provided with a passport
of his Excellency the Secretary of State of his Catholic
Majesty (for otherwise they will not be received), pre-
sent themselves to M. de Ulloa with their passports, im-
mediately after their arrival, and with the invoice of their
cargoes. It is forbidden to unload anything until they
have permisison from him written at the bottom of their
passports or of their invoices. And it is ordered that the
brokers present themselves equally before M. de Ulloa,
giving the price at which they are willing to sell their
merchandise, to have it examined by just and intelligent
persons of this colony, and, if the prices are excessive,
they will not be allowed to sell their merchandise, and
they will be obliged to go elsewhere to sell it. The mer-
chants will be obliged to receive the current money of the
country in payment of their merchandise. They will
form at least one third of their cargo of lumber and other
products of the colony."

On September 8 the merchants of New Orleans sent
a petition to the Superior Council, asking to be heard
before the ordinance was put into effect, that they might
have time to prove " that the extension and freedom of
commerce, far from doing harm to states and colonies,
are, on the contrary, their strength and their support."

The petition was signed as follows: "Joseph MiDiet,
Rose, Cantrelle, D. Braud, J. Merrier, L. Ducrest, Petit,

nee] NAMES OF MERCHANTS 161

Duforest, Toutant Beauregard, L. Boisdore, B. Du-
plessy, Braquier, P. Caresse, J. Vienne, P. Segond, Voix,
Durel, Blache, M. Poupet, P. Poupet, Estebe, Rodrigue,
J. Sauvestre, G. Gardelle, Ducarpe, F. Durand, J. and
N. Boudet, Rivoire, Macuenara, F. Denis, J. Arnoult,
A. Reynard, P. Senilh, A. Bodaille, Laulhe, Dubourg,
Durand cadet, Festas, Frigiere, L. Ranson, Fournier
and St. Pe, Detour and Villefranche, Salomon, Delas-
size, Blaignat, Langlois, Fortier, J. Lafitte cadet, He-
nard, L. Estardy, Astier and Brunet, J. Bienvenu,
Sarpy, Doraison, Cavelier freres, Papion, Gaurrege,
Revoil, Guezille, Guignan, St. Anne, Moullineau, P.
Hery, A. Ollivier, and Broussard." A little later the
following names were added: "Dumas and Grieumard,
Chateau, P. Simon, E. Hugues, J. Sarrou, B. Gaillardi,
Raguet, J. Nicolet, Brion, Betremieux l'aine, Blandin
Dutertre, Bijon, L. d'Haubeck, M. Duralde, Bonnemai-
son, Joli, Forstall, B. l'Enfant."

Ulloa was a man of merit, a distinguished savant, but
lacking in tact as commander of a people opposed to a
change of rulers, who should have been treated with the
utmost gentleness. The governor acted with haughti-
ness in his dealings with the inhabitants, and certainly
governed in a strange manner. He remained at the Ba-
lize for seven months to await his Peruvian bride, the
Marchioness dAbrado, not once in the mean time going
to New Orleans. Aubry went to see Ulloa at the Balize,
and while he was there he and Ulloa signed a paper by
which the colony was transferred to Spain. No public
act of possession took place, except that Aubry author-

]62 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA ims

ized Ulloa to raise the Spanish flag at the Balize. Ulloa
established also posts in the Missouri country, at Iber-
ville River, and opposite Natchez; and he caused the
Spanish flag to be hoisted there. In New Orleans, how-
ever, the capital of the province, the French banner was
still floating in the Place d'Armes, and no transfer of
the colony from France to Spain had taken place. The
colonists were justified in not acknowledging Ulloa's
rule and in asking for his withdrawal from Louisiana.

On January 17 and 18, 1768, the cold was intense, and
the orange trees perished, as in 1748. The river before
New Orleans was frozen on both sides from thirty to forty
feet. On January 20, 1768, Aubry wrote an interesting
letter, of which the following are curious extracts: 12 " My
position is most extraordinary. I command for the King
of France and at the same time I govern the colony as
if it belonged to the King of Spain. I have almost suc-
ceeded in being able to make French vivacity agree with
Spanish gravity, by the trouble which I have given my-
self. There has happened, thanks to God! no accident—
not a Spaniard killed, not even a quarrel at all serious."

Aubry was a poor prophet, for only a few months
later a revolution against the Spanish domination broke
cut in Louisiana. Jean Milhet had returned from
France at the end of 1767, and the narrative of the fail-
ure of his undertaking had caused great excitement in
the colony. Meetings were held in New Orleans and
elsewhere, and at the German Coast, says Martin, "perfect
unanimity prevailed." A Capuchin missionary there,
Father Barnabe, exerted his influence on his parishioners,

1768] PETITION TO THE COUNCIL 1G3

and took an active part in the opposition against Spain.
Finally a meeting was held in New Orleans, which was
attended hy delegates from all parts of the province.
Lafreniere was the chief speaker, and addresses were
also made by Jean Milhet and his brother Joseph, and
by Doucet, a lawyer. A petition to the Superior Coun-
cil, enumerating the grievances against Ulloa, was pre-
pared, and was signed by five hundred and sixty of the
most influential inhabitants in the colony. Foucault, the
commissaire ordonnutcur, authorized the printing of the
petition, which was presented to the Council on October
28, 1768. It mentioned several acts of severity of Ulloa,
a stranger who had not observed any of the formalities
prescribed by the act of cession. This was the petition: 13

How shall we describe the inhumanity with which the Acadians
have been treated? Those people, so long tossed about by events,
determined, through a patriotic spirit, to abandon all that they
might possess on the English lands, to come to live under the
happy laws of their former master. They arrived, at great ex-
pense, in this colony. Hardly have they succeeded in clearing the
ground needed for a poor hut when, on account of some repre-
sentations which they wished to make to M. de Ulloa, he threat-
ened to drive them from the colony and to have them sold as slaves,
to pay for the rations which the King had given them, by order-
ing the Germans to refuse to give them a refuge. We leave it
to be decided whether this conduct is not barbarous. But we be-
lieve that we can say, without exaggerating, that it is diamet-
rically opposite to that political prudence which wishes that all
the branches of the population be favored.

Those who complain (and what man borne down under the
joke can suffer such inhumanities without murmuring?) — yes, we

164 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ires

dare say so — those who complain are threatened with being im-
prisoned, exiled to the Balize, or sent to the mines.

If M. de Ulloa has been clothed with some authority, his prince
has never ordered him to render it tyrannical, or to exercise it
before having made known his titles and powers. Such vexations
do not come from the hearts of Kings. They agree little with
the humanity which controls their character and their acts.

We should never end if we undertook to mention in detail all
the humiliations which the French of New Orleans have suffered.
It is to be desired, for the honor of the nation, that what
has transpired may be counteracted by the protection of the
Superior Council, which we claim to-day. For, as a climax to
so many tribulations, we predict that, after some time, the colo-
nists of Louisiana will be reduced to the simple food of the Tor-
tilla, while the most sober food will never cause them trouble.

However, the preservation of their life, their obligations to
their creditors, their honor emanating from patriotism and from
their duty, and finally their fortunes attacked by said decree,
induce them to offer their property and their blood to preserve
forever the sweet and inviolable title of French citizen.

All this leads them naturally to conclusions, which the zeal of
the Superior Court for the public good, its firmness for the main-
tenance of the laws of which His Most Christian Majesty has
made them depositary, assure them that it will receive most fa-
vorably.

The petitioners pay here the highest compliments to
Aubry, who was soon to show that he did not deserve
them, and they conclude by supplicating the court:

1st. To be assured that the privileges and exemptions, which
the colony has enjoyed since the retrocession that the Company
of the Indies has made to His Most Christian Majesty, will be
maintained, without any innovation that shall arrest them and
disturb the security of the citizens.

1768] PETITION TO THE COUNCIL 165

2d. That passports, furloughs, and permissions emanating
from the governor and the commissary of His Most Christian
Majesty be granted to captains of ships that sail from this col-
ony for any port of France and of America.

3d. That any vessel from any port of France or America have
free entrance of the river, whether it come directly for this col-
ony, or call here, as has always been done.

4th. That freedom of commerce with all the nations of the
continent which are under the domination of His Most Christian
Majesty be granted to all citizens, in accordance with the orders
of the King to the late M. d'Abbadie, registered at the record-
office of this town, and in accordance also with the letter of Mon-
seigneur the Duke de Choiseul to the same M. d'Abbadie, dated
February 9, 1765.

5th. That M. de Ulloa be declared infractor and usurper, on
several points, of the authority devolving on the Government and
the Council; since all the laws, ordinances, and customs require
that this authority be exercised by an officer only after he shall
have observed all the formalities prescribed, and this M. de Ulloa
has not done. He should then be declared infractor and usurper
for the following reasons :

For having had the Spanish flag raised in several places in
the colony without having previously shown and caused to be
registered with the Council the titles and credentials with which
he may have been provided, and without the citizens assembled
having been informed of them.

For having, by his own private authority, required that cap-
tains of vessels be detained, and their vessels kept in port, without
any cause ; and for having kept under arrest French citizens on
board a Spanish frigate.

The undersigned demand that, in virtue of all these grievances,
and of many others of public notoriety, and also for the tran-
quillity of citizens who claim the protection of the Council, they
be freed henceforth from the fear of a tyrannical authority and
of the conditions of said decree, by the removal of M. de Ulloa,

106 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA ines

who should bo ordered to embark in the first vessel that shall de-
part, to go wherever lie may please, out of the dependency of this
province.

Finally, that all the Spanish officers who arc in this city, or
scattered in the posts of the colony, be ordered to depart and
go likewise where they please, out of the dependency of the prov-
ince; and that it please the Court to order that the decree to be
issued be read, published, and posted in all the usual places of
this town, and that collated copies be sent to all the ports of the
colony.

This petition was read to the Council, and, at the re-
quest of the attorney-general, Lafreniere, was referred
to Huchet de Kernion and Piot de Launay, titular coun-
cilors, to be examined and reported upon.

Lafreniere, in his capacity of attorney-general, ad-
dressed the Council in favor of the petition, and spoke
with great courage and eloquence. The following words
of his deserve to be quoted :

Liberty and competition are the foster mothers of the two es-
tates [commerce and agriculture]. Exclusion is their tyrant and
stepmother. Without liberty, there are no more virtues. From
despotism come pusillanimity and the abyss of vices. Man is recog-
nized as sinning against God, only because he preserves free will.
Where is the liberty of the planters and of the merchants? The
marks of protection and kindness are changed into despotism; a
single authority wishes to destroy everything. The estates must
no longer run the risk of being taxed with crime, of trembling,
of being enslaved, and of crawling. The Superior Council, bul-
wark of the tranquillity of the virtuous citizens, has been main-
tained onky by the probity and disinterestedness of the magis-
trates and the united confidence of the citizens in them. 14

H68] LAF11EXIERE 167

The attorney-general concluded his address hy asking
that M. de Ulloa be declared infractor of the laws, forms,
and usages, and usurper of an illegal authority; that
he be ordered to leave the colony without delay, in the
frigate in which he came; that Messrs. Aubry and Fou-
cault be requested, and even commanded, in the name
of the King, to continue to govern the colony; that no
vessel be allowed to sail from the colony unless with
passports from M. Foucault acting as commissaire or-
donnateur; that taking possession of the colony be not
proposed or attempted by any means, without new or-
ders from His Catholic Majesty; that Messrs. Loyola,
Gayarre, and Xavarro be declared responsible for the
bonds issued by them, unless they show their authority
from His Catholic Majesty; that the planters and mer-
chants be authorized to choose deputies to carry their
petition to the King of France ; that the Superior Coun-
cil address representations to the King; that the decree
to be rendered be read, published, posted, and registered ;
that collated copies of the decree be sent to the Duke de
Praslin with a letter from the Superior Council, and
copies sent also to all the posts in the colony, to be pub-
lished, posted, and registered.

At a meeting of the Superior Council, held on October
29, 1768, the report of the titular councilors and special
commissioners, Huchet de Kernion and Piot de Launay,
was read, and it was decided to adopt the conclusions of
the attorney-general. A decree to that effect was there-
fore rendered.

Foucault expressed his opinion that none of the Span-

168 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [im

ish officers could be sent away from the colony by an
order of the Court ; that Ulloa, not having formally taken
possession, should not perform any of the duties of gov-
ernor with regard to the French; that navigation should
take place as before Ulloa's arrival; that all the Spanish
officers of administration should continue to fulfil their
functions, with regard to supplying the capital and posts
with provisions, to paying the French troops, and at-
tending to necessary works. 15

Foucault's opinion was not very logical; but in times
of revolution we must not expect dispassionate logic
from men who rise against oppression. His part in
the events of October, 1768, and later, was not credi-
table. The inhabitants of Louisiana, in their petition
to the Council, and in their memorial afterward ad-
dressed to the King, were sometimes, like Foucault, lack-
ing in logic. They were right, however, in the main
points of their complaints.

On the very day of the adoption of the decree against
Ulloa, October 29, 16 Aubry protested, and said he would
oppose Ulloa's departure, if he did not fear to expose
the latter's life and that of all the Spaniards who were
in Louisiana. On October 31 the Council declared Au-
bry's protest null and void, and ordered the enforcement
of the decree.

Ulloa had been given three days to leave the colony,
and on October 31 he embarked with his family on board
a French ship that he had chartered. On November 1
a band of colonists who were returning from a wedding,
at daybreak, appeared on the levee, singing patriotic airs

1768] EXPULSION OF ULLOA 169

and uttering cries of triumph. One of them, named Pe-
tit, cut the cables of the vessel on which was the Spanish
governor, and the ship drifted down with the current.
The foreigner was thus expelled, and a revolution had
taken place.

A letter written on October 30 by Aubry to the min-
ister, related the events of the preceding day, and said
that four delegates were to leave for France. Lapey-
riere was sent by him to relate the details of " this revo-
lution"; Lesassier, by the Superior Council; De Bien-
ville, naval officer, by the planters; Milhet, captain of
militia, by the merchants. Bienville was a Creole of
Louisiana, a brother of Noyan. He refused to act as
delegate of the planters, on account of his being an offi-
cer of the navy, but he departed from the province with
the other delegates. He had been one of the chiefs of the
revolution, and would probably have shared the fate of his
brother Noyan had he remained in Louisiana. Milhet,
mentioned by Aubry as the delegate of the merchants,
did not leave the colony, and St. Lette went to France
to represent the planters and the merchants. The dele-
gates from Louisiana carried to the Duke de Praslin,
who was Minister of Foreign Affairs, all the papers re-
lating to the revolution, including the famous memorial
of the planters and merchants.

Letters were written to Praslin by the syndics of the
planters and merchants, Marquis, Masan, Braquier, and
Carresse, and by the Superior Council. The latter body
sent also a long address to the King, 17 relating the events
that had taken place in the province, and justifying their

170 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes

action with regard to Ulloa. They said that when they
received the letter of the King concerning the cession,
they proved their submission by registering it immedi-
ately, in spite of the sad situation of the people, who were
always attached to the King.

The tranquillity and happiness of the inhabitants had
been guaranteed by the King, who promised that the
laws and customs of the colony should be observed. Two
years elapsed between the receipt of the King's letter
and the arrival of Ulloa, and in the mean time the inhabi-
tants still considered themselves French subjects, and
the colony prospered. Ulloa arrived at the Balize on
February 22, 1766. A tragic event deprived him of
eleven of his sailors; and rain, thunder, and wind intro-
duced him to New Orleans on March 5 at noon. He
was received with respect.

Ulloa visited the posts as far as Natchitoches, and
promised ten years' freedom of commerce. On his re-
turn he did not present any of his titles and powers, and
on September 6, 1766, he issued an illegal comm'ercial
ordinance. All the merchants united to ask the Council
to declare its illegality. It was not annulled by decree,
but it was promised that it would not be enforced as
long as legal possession of the province had not been
taken. Ulloa asked that the petition of the merchants
be communicated to him, that he might choose among
the signers those whom he wished to sacrifice to his wrath.
Foucault refused to accede to his demand, and said that
the petition would be sent to the Duke de Choiseul.
Ulloa called himself king of the colony, and spoke in

■ .

1768] ADDRESS OF THE COUNCIL 171

the most insulting manner of the Superior Council, of
Foucaultj and of all Frenchmen. This spread alarm
and consternation in the province.

Ulloa dared, without legal authority, to create a new
Council, and committed numerous acts of despotism.
He violated the Black Code by permitting a Spaniard
to marry a negress, his servant, in his own house. He
granted protection to negroes, without hearing their mas-
ters. ' Your subjects were threatened with slavery, and
their negroes acquired the degrees of free men."

The colony lost its prosperity, and all hearts were
given up to despair. Ulloa was declared the implacable
enemy of all Frenchmen, and all the people — planters,
merchants, artisans, and workmen — united in addressing
a petition to the Superior Council. The Council met on
October 28, at eight o'clock in the morning, and ordered
that two titular councilors be named to examine the
petition and report the next day; while six notable in-
habitants were named councilors assessors. The Coun-
cil, composed of thirteen members, met at nine o'clock in
the morning on October 29, and before a vote was taken
Aubry was asked whether Ulloa had communicated to
him his titles and powers. He answered that " no deci-
sive title had been communicated to him about the mis-
sion of M. de Ulloa." The opinion or vote of each mem-
ber was given in writing, and the decree was announced
at a quarter to twelve. At a quarter past two it was an-
nounced to Ulloa on board the Spanish frigate. Aubry
protested against the decree; his protest was declared
null and void, and on November 1 four deputies of the

172 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [lies

planters and merchants asked, at half-past two o'clock,
that the decree be executed. The Council met, and at
four o'clock it was announced that Ulloa had embarked
on board the ship that he had chosen. He remained eleven
hours in the river, without being molested. He was al-
lowed a delay of only three days on account of the great
excitement and general discontent, and because four
fifths of the furniture of which he had made use belonged
to the owner of the house and to different individuals.
The Superior Council said in a letter to the King:

The French, accustomed to the gentleness of a government de-
sired by all strangers, will never be able to subject themselves to
the exclusiveness and despotism practiced in all the Spanish gov-
ernments. Man is born submissive to laws. He knows them as
he advances in age, and remains attached to them in maturity.
The recasting of the character, of the heart and of honest cus-
toms can never be done freely by men who have fulfilled half of
their career ; force alone can subdue them. What life ! what com-
bat for citizens, Sire, born subjects of the King Louis the Well
Beloved! Deign yet, Sire, to favor the general wish of the
colony, and the very humble representations of your Superior
Council.

The titular councilors,' s named as already stated,
were Huchet de Kernion and De Launay, on account of
the sickness of De Lalande and De la Chaise ; the coun-
cilors assessors were Lesassier, Fleuriau, Hardy de Bois-
blanc, De la Sestiere Pascalis de Labarre, Bobe Des-
closeaux, Ducros, and Thomassin.

On November 7, 1768, the Superior Council ordered
an investigation to be held concerning the " vexations "
committed by Ulloa, notwithstanding their notoriety.
Huchet de Kernion and Louis Piot de Launay were

1768] CHARGES AGAINST ULLOA 173

named to conduct the investigation. Several witnesses
were heard, among whom were Father Dagobert and
Dr. Lebeau, and their testimony proves that the Span-
ish governor committed many acts of oppression and of
despotism. 19 A curious charge against him was, that he
would not allow negroes to be chastised in the houses of
their masters, because it inconvenienced his Peruvian
wife. Captain Piernas comes in for his share of blame
for the very outrageous treatment at Natchez of some
Frenchmen who were going up the river in a boat.

On March 20, 1769, the inhabitants of Louisiana ad-
dressed a very touching letter to the Duke de Praslin, in
which they implored his assistance in preserving to them
the " precious and inestimable title of French citizens."
The King and his minister, however, turned a deaf ear
to the entreaties of men whose country had been cast
out from the French dominions, and they were left to
their unhappy fate.

The new Council that Ulloa was accused of having
formed was composed of Loyola, commissary of war;
Gayarre, contador; D'Acosta, commanding the Spanish
frigate Le Volant; De Reggio, retired captain of in-
fantry; Olivier de Vezin, surveyor; De la Chaise, hon-
orary councilor of the Superior Council; and Dreux,
captain of militia. 20

Antonio de Ulloa, 21 whom the Louisianians expelled
from the colony, was born in Seville in 1716, and died in
1795. He was a distinguished traveler and scientist,
and established in Spain the first cabinet of natural his-
tory and the first laboratory of metallurgy. It was he,
also, who had the first idea of a canal for navigation and

174 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ires

irrigation in Old Castile. He perfected the art of en-
graving, of printing, and of the manufacture of cloth,
and he directed the designing of the geographical maps
of Spain. He wrote several works, among which were
" Historical Voyages in South America," " American
Notes: Physico-historical Discourses on South America
and on the East of North America," and " Observations
taken at Sea of an Eclipse of the Sun." His utter fail-
ure as governor of Louisiana proves that he was better
fitted to be a writer on scientific subjects than the ad-
ministrator of a province in a period of transition from
one domination to another.

Lafreniere was really the chief of the revolution
against Spain, and the memory of this able and heroic
man should be honored in Louisiana. Baudry des Lo-
zieres says of him: 22

M. de Lafreniere was one of the handsomest men whom nature
has been pleased to form. Tall, well made, with a noble air, im-
posing and brave, there was no one to be compared with him.
His eye had a fire that penetrated everything; he knew how to
deliver agreeably convincing addresses. His appearance was so
remarkable that, not knowing to whom to compare him, he was
commonly called Louis XIV, because he had really that majesty
which one attributes to sovereigns. Of exceeding kindness, he
loved his compatriots with the tenderness of a brother, and he
had all the virtues that cause a husband, a father, a friend, a
citizen, to be cherished. He had been educated in France, and
he had brought back the charms and the good taste that he
spread over all that he said and all that he wrote. He was the
object of the attentions of society, and of astonishment in public
assemblies. Gentle, moderate in ordinary situations of life, he
was of electrical vivacity on serious occasions ; nothing, so to say,

1768] THE CHIEF CONSPIRATORS 175

could resist the torrent of liis eloquence. He had, for first and
sincere friend, a man worthy of public esteem, who by his
virtues, his mind, his talents, his wealth, and his credit, had ob-
tained over him a just influence. This was Jean Milhet, of whom
we have spoken, and whom we shall see pay dearly for this
precious friendship.

' The chief conspirators," says Gayarre, " were some
of the most influential men in the colony, such as: La-
freniere, the King's attorney-general; Foucault, the in-
tendant commissary; Masan, a retired captain of in-
fantry, a wealthy planter, and a Knight of St. Louis;
Marquis, a captain in the Swiss troops enlisted in the
service of France; Noyan, a retired captain of cavalry;
and Bienville, a lieutenant in the navy (both nephews of
Bienville, founder of the colony) ; Doucet, a distin-
guished lawyer; Jean and Joseph Milhet, Carresse, Pe-
tit, and Poupet, who were among the principal mer-
chants; Hardy de Boisblanc, a former member of the
Superior Council and a planter of note; Villere, com-
mander of the German Coast."

Braud, the King's printer, printed a long memorial
of the planters and merchants of Louisiana about the
event of October 29, 1768, and it is one of the most
important and interesting documents in our history.
The colonists did not prove their case fully against
Ulloa; but we see in their memorial their bitter opposi-
tion to the ride of Spain, of the foreigner, and their noble
sentiments of manhood. They resisted oppression, and
their spirit was highly patriotic. They were not impelled
by fear of losing their commerce, but primarily by love

176 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nc 8

for France, and then by a worthy spirit of independence.
We, their descendants, admire their feelings and are
proud of their heroism. The French colonists of 1768
were inspired by the same feelings that caused the Amer-
ican colonists of 1776 to rise against the tyranny of
George III. Lafreniere and his friends, as later Wash-
ington and his associates, took up arms to resist oppres-
sion. From all the parishes in Louisiana brave and reso-
lute men had assembled in New Orleans on the eventful
29th of October. 23 The Germans were led by Villere,
the Acadians by Noyan, and Marquis was commander-
in-chief. All these valiant men rejoiced in the over-
throw of Ulloa, in spite of Aubry's protest. The latter
played an unenviable part in these events. He had
acted as the tool of the Spanish governor, instead of
declining to recognize the latter's authority until he
should show his credentials. He acted with Ulloa
against the colonists, and we shall soon see him play
informer against his own fellow-citizens. Foucault was
as despicable as Aubry, and was utterly devoid of cour-
age and nobility of soul.

On December 14, 1768, the inhabitants of Louisiana
presented another petition to the Superior Council, ask-
ing for the expulsion of the Spanish frigate Le Volant,
which had remained in the river. The petition was pre-
sented by Marquis, De La Ronde, and Le Breton, syn-
dics of the planters, and by Carresse and Braquier, syn-
dics of the merchants. The frigate finally left the colony
on April 20, 1769. The Louisianians had been most per-
sistent in their opposition to everything foreign.

CHAPTER IX

Memorial of the Planters and Merchants

of Louisiana on the Event of

October 29, 1768 J

Necessity of the Revolution — Love for the King of France— Promises of
Louis XV in the name of the King of Spain— Arrival of Ulloa — His recep-
tion by the people — Important trades restricted by Ulloa — No outlet for
products of Louisiana in Spain — Louisiana to be made a rampart to Mexico
— No advantage in being allowed to go to foreign countries when there is
no market for goods in Spain — Ulloa introduces the Spanish law in spite
of promise of Louis XV — Interdiction of the passes of the Mississippi —
Accidents to vessels through UHoa's order of interdiction — Ulloa closes
brickyards — Ulloa prohibits the introduction of negroes — Ulloa treats
respectful representations as seditious — Ulloa does not show his pow-
ers— Ulloa treats New Orleans as a conquered city — Ulloa mal-
treats the Germans and the Acadians — Ulloa's contempt for the eccle-
siastical laws— Frenchmen have often shaken off a foreign yoke with-
out consent of the government — The Spanish possessions better protected
if Louisiana remains French — The loss of Canada renders Louisiana very
useful to France — Close relations with merchants of France — Obstacle to
the cession is love for the King of France— The flag of Spain was not
insulted — Prayer to the King to take back the colony— The Memorial a
noble paper.

CULAR witnesses of the calamities
that are afflicting us, the magistrates
of the Superior Council of Louisi-
ana have not been able to refuse any
longer to listen to the plaintive cries
of an oppressed people. The decree
of the 29th of October, which has
followed our very humble representations, is a local

177

178 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [itob

proof of the imminence of the dangers that surrounded
us, and of the weight of the yoke that was beginning to
overwhelm us. Animated by the circumstances to be-
lieve that great evils called for prompt and efficacious
remedies, our magistrates have not hesitated a moment
about the necessary action of sending back the so-called
governor of His Catholic Majesty, to render him an
account of his conduct. But their diligent cares were
not limited to calming the anxieties of a groaning people.
They have also authorized them to carry their supplica-
tion and their desires to the foot of the throne, being
well persuaded that the compassionate look of their nat-
ural sovereign would rest upon such devoted subjects,
and that their respectful love for their monarch would
not be rejected by his beneficent Majesty, the image on
earth for his people of the preserving Being. Zealous
Frenchmen whose estates and families are established
on the continent, you whose pure hearts do not need that
the eye of the sovereign should animate them, you whose
zeal for your incomparable monarch has not suffered
from the crossing and the distance of the seas, from con-
tact with the foreigner, from the busy activity of a neigh-
boring and rival nation, calm your anxieties about the
cession of this province. Our great King, in his letter
that announces it to us, seemed to foresee our alarms.
He rendered himself mediator of our cause with His
Catholic Majesty, he caused us to hope from him the
same marks of kindness and protection that one enjoys
under his cherished domination. Those august senti-
ments must embolden our love. Let the cries of joy, of

1768] PROMISES OF LOUIS XV 179

' Long live the King! ' repeated so often around our pa-
vilion on the day of the revolution and during the two
days that followed it, be repeated without fear! Let our
feeble voice inform the universe and posterity even that
this cherished domination under which we wish to live
and to die, to which we offer the remnants of our for-
tunes, our blood, our children, and our families, is the
domination of Louis the Well-beloved.

' The colony of Louisiana was ceded to His Catholic
Majesty by a private act passed at Fontainebleau on
November 3, 1762, and accepted by another act passed
at the Escurial on the thirteenth day following. 2 The
King, in his letter written from Versailles, on April 21,
1764, to M. d'Abbadie, then director-general and com-
mandant for His Majesty in Louisiana, in announcing
this cession to him, says he hopes at the same time for
the advantage and tranquillity of the inhabitants of that
colony, and that he promises himself, in consequence of
the friendship and affection of His Catholic Majesty,
that he will be pleased to give orders to his governor and
to all other officers employed in his service in said colony,
that the ecclesiastics and religious houses who attend to
the parochial duties and to the missions should continue
their functions there; that the ordinary judges should
continue, as well as the Superior Council, to render jus-
tice according to the laws, forms, and usages of the col-
ony,- that the inhabitants be kept and maintained in their
possessions; hoping besides that His Catholic Majesty
will give to his new subjects in Louisiana the same marks
of kindness and protection that were felt under the pre-

180 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes

ceding domination, and whose greater effects the mis-
fortunes of war alone have prevented them from feeling;
that he orders him, besides, to cause the present letter to
be registered at the Superior Council of New Orleans, in
order that the different estates of the colony be informed
of its contents, and may have recourse to it if need be,
the present letter being for no other end. Fortunate
and consoling expectation which the promises of the
most august and most respectable of monarchs caused to
rise in our hearts, by what fatality have you vanished!

" M. Ulloa arrived at the Balize on February 28, 1766,
in a frigate of twenty guns, having about eighty sol-
diers, three Spanish Capuchins, and persons of the ad-
ministration. He debarked in the city on March 5, and,
accompanied by the magistrates of the Council them-
selves, who in spite of the rain and the storm had gone
to his canoe, he passed between two rows formed by the
regular troops and the militia, to the noise of cannon
and public acclamation. He answered at first to such
splendid testimonials with the most brilliant promises.
But the results did not prove their solidity. Without
entering into minute details of his private life, let us
retrace the measures relative to the public cause. If he
proposed to himself as his principal aim to destroy, by
the force of his clandestine administration, the hopes
with which we flattered ourselves, he has succeeded per-
fectly.

" To render clearer the first motive of our complaints,
it is proper to observe that the trade that is carried on
with the savage natives is one of the principal branches

1768] RESTRICTION OF TRADE 181

of commerce, of which the interest is so closely united
here with that of the cultivator, that one is the spring of
the other. This trade is a very advantageous outlet for
the products of several manufactures, which will shortly
spread hy encouragement. It is an ahundant mine, of
which the opening presents riches, which promises treas-
ures more valuable than those of Potosi, and so much the
more considerable as the activity of the trade will dig
deeper. From this exhaustless source arises the advan-
tage of the public and of the individual. The mer-
chant finds there a profitable sale for his goods; the la-
borer, employed in these journeys and in this trade, gets
there the means of subsisting and of amassing a compe-
tency. The affection of the natives is kept up by fre-
quent intercourse with the French, securing to them the
results that necessarily follow from familiar acquain-
tance. Public security at last, from which this trade with
the barbarous nations that surround us has arisen, is pre-
served by it. But this is not the only benefit that results
from it for the colony in general. The ships from Eu-
rope and the islands, attracted by the hope of an advan-
tageous exchange, bring to us the provisions we need;
and as they find in our stores peltries from which they
hope to derive a profit, those goods are delivered to us
at a fair price, which would be excessive if they must
return in ballast. Those truths, those solid advantages,
have been considered by our respected ministers, every
time their precise orders have encouraged the traders
by recommending the liberty of that commerce. The
truth of this has been well recognized and expressly de-

182 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes

clared by Monseigneur the Duke de Choiseul in his let-
ter to M. dAbbadie, dated February 9, 1765. All north
of the Mississippi and all northwest of the Missouri were
offered then to our activity. Innumerable nations, rich
in rare peltries, who inhabit those unknown countries,
would in a short time be secured for our manufactures
solely. The discoveries to be made in these beautiful
countries would be reserved for our efforts, and our eyes
would pierce for the first time, for the profit of the uni-
verse, that part of its globe which still remains to be
known. What encouragement for us the intentions of
this wise minister! We see him, with transports of grat-
itude, not only lend himself to the reestablishment of
our fortunes overthrown by the misfortunes of war, and
the aggrandizement of our resources almost annihilated
by the very conditions of peace, but also extend his views
to geographical discoveries, and trace to us in the same
picture the route to fortune and to glory; splendid pro-
ject which M. Ulloa had deranged and which he would
have overthrown without doubt! Let us not try to
penetrate his motives, and let us confine ourselves to re-
tracing the perseverance of his attempts against liberty
of trade. They were manifested at first in the very
place by a general prohibition. The planters and mer-
chants of the Illinois have protested. They have ex-
posed, in their representations to M. St. Ange, French
commandant at the said place, the certainty of their ruin
and the inevitable danger of being pillaged and perhaps
slaughtered by the savages, who, not entering into po-
litical considerations, wish to be provided with our mer-

1768] RESTRICTION OF TRADE 183

ehandise and to have a constant trade for their peltries.
In spite of the repugnance of the Sieur Rios, a Spanish
captain sent by M. Ulloa to the Illinois as commandant,
the traders have gone again this year into the villages,
with this difference, that they have been reduced to a cer-
tain number; but it was the last effort of their expiring
privileges, and M. Ulloa, at about the same time, granted
to five or six individuals an exclusive trade in these coun-
tries, recommended by our ministers for general compe-
tition.

' The exploitation of the woods is another object that
occupies here the merchant, whose interest we have just
united so closely with that of the cultivator. In the rep-
resentations made to the Superior Council of this prov-
ince, it has been shown that this article was a traffic
which exceeded five hundred thousand livres each year,
and this truth has met with no contradiction. This traf-
fic, which the nature of the country presents to each
one with a benefit in proportion to the forces he may
employ, but always certain in this degree of proportion,
is the first effort of the planter who begins, and the ob-
ject of the application of the one who has fortified him-
self. Take away in Louisiana the freedom of trade,
close the outlet for the sale of its lumber, and from that
moment you reduce the merchant and the colonist to
idleness and want. The ordinance published on Septem-
ber 6, 1768, only threatened us with that danger. His
Catholic Majesty, we were told, informed by M. Ulloa
of all that concerned in this country supplies and traffic,
wished again to favor the planters to such a point as to

184 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes

permit the traffic of their woods on he ships coming from
Santo Domingo and Martinique, until means had been
found of carrying on this commerce in Spain! It was
plunging the dagger by degrees, and the great blow
has been struck by the decree. In the first article, it is
said that the cargoes will be taken only in the ports of
Seville, Alicante, Carthagena, Malaga, Barcelona, Co-
runna, etc. In the eighth, that the return cargoes will be
taken in the same ports. In the third article, the ships
that are sent to Louisiana will be of Spanish construction,
and the captains and crews will be Spanish or natural-
ized. Finally, in articles fourth and fifth, voluntary
stopping in any port of America, even of the Spanish
domination, is prohibited, and the forced stopping is
submitted to verifications and onerous charges. Was
there remaining to us, for the commerce of our woods
in the French colonies of Santo Domingo and Marti-
nique, the only places where they had any value, — was
there remaining to us, I say, a gleam of the faintest
hope? Imprudent censors, whose hardly serious reflec-
tions might extend over our conduct in the present revo-
lution, try, I consent to it, by your problematical combi-
nations to recompose the interrupted harmony by making
it agree with the decree; but think first of teaching us
how to subsist.

" Besides, what appearance of resource could suspend
at least our just anxieties? The produce of our lands
consists, and our commerce consists, in woods, indigo, pel-
tries, tobacco, cotton, sugar, resin, and tar. Peltries have
so much less value in Spain that they are little used there,

1768] NO OUTLET FOR PRODUCTS 185

and the preparation of those which are used is done in
foreign countries. Havana and Peru furnish it sugars
and lumber far preferable to ours; Guatemala, an indigo
superior and in larger quantity than its factories need;
Peru, Havana, and Campeachy, cotton; the Isle of
Pines, resin and tar; Havana and the Spanish part of
Santo Domingo, tobacco. Our products, inferior to
those of her vast possessions, useless besides and super-
abundant in its ports, are disdained there, or reduced
to very little value. What feeble returns must we ex-
pect from the exports that will be made of them in the
ports to which the decree directs us! On the other hand,
the few manufactures established in Spain, added to the
little help which the maritime cities get from the inter-
nal agriculture, compel the subjects of His Catholic Maj-
esty who are established there to have recourse to the
foreigner for their provisions of every kind. Marseilles
furnishes wheat in these ports which could not supply
themselves with the country itself without the excessive
cost of a painful export through a mountainous region.
The whole nation, besides, is tributary to all the manu-
facturing countries of Europe, and the most signal favor
that Providence has done it is to render it mistress of
Peru and of Mexico, to purchase its first needs. Rich
by our own industry, can we hope that Spain will supply
our needs sufficiently and at moderate cost, when she is
herself obliged to procure hers at great expense? In
spite of the exemption, momentary perhaps, which the
decree announces to us, from all duties to be imposed on
goods destined to Louisiana, these sad truths, known by

186 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA ines

the entire universe, added to the certain discredit of our
goods in the ports of Spain, have made us fear justly
that our crops, although abundant, far from rewarding
as formerly our application and our industry, by giving
us superabundance, will cease to produce even the pure
and simple necessities.

" According to these observations, although they are
superficial, yet with regard to the certainties from which
they are deduced, can one doubt for a moment that this
colony, as to its products, will be useless to Spain, and
that the political views in the treaty of cession have been
restricted to the sole purpose of making of it a bulwark
to Mexico? But does the poverty of the colonists add
any new force to this rampart? And by what folly
should we undermine our reviving fortunes by destroy-
ing the liberty of our commerce, when those same political
views do not seem to require that sacrifice? Everything
gives us cause to believe that His Catholic Majesty wished
to be informed first, through the reports of his envoy, of the
productive causes and the conservative means of our wel-
fare. The promises of our King assured us of the good
will of the new sovereign, and of the gentleness of the
future domination. The officers of His Catholic Maj-
esty announced to us, on their arrival, the continuation
of our commerce at least for ten years ; the source of our
needs, known in Spain without our having indicated it
ourselves, still remained open to our activity; but have
we been able to doubt, when we saw the decree, that M.
Ulloa, intrusted with this report, — as the ordinance pub-
lished here on September 6, 1766, declares to us, — is the

1768] NO OUTLET FOR PRODUCTS 187

Author of these imminent calamities, and that, having
planned our ruin, his hardly truthful reports have turned
aside the effects of that same good will which his mas-
ter wished without doubt to show us?

" It is vain to say that the last article of the decree per-
mits us to extract from the ports of Spain the fruits and
goods brought from Louisiana, to sell them in foreign
countries, if there is no market for them in Spain, and
that no export duty need be paid. In all that is pre-
sented to us here, where is there any true advantage?
Let us not count the articles of the decree, but let us
take the spirit, and let us not read any of these articles
without following the links that bind them so intimately
the one to the other. True, it will be permitted to us to
sell in foreign countries our goods and products which
cannot be sold in Spain, but on what conditions? Our
merchants, naturalized Spaniards, according to article
3 of the decree, will be compelled to go to the ports of
Seville and Malaga, and to pay the four per cent, ac-
cording to article 12. Forced, by the want of sale for
their goods, to leave those ports and go to the neighbor-
ing countries, they will have to return in ballast to the
ports of Spain, according to article 1, to take their cargo
of fruits and goods already introduced into Spain, which
will have paid the import duties according to article 7.
Do those costly proceedings dispel our sorrowful reflec-
tions upon the general famine that was threatening us?
Let us add to that the cost of the ships, estimated by our
chambers of commerce at three thousand livres every
month for a ship of three hundred tons; that of unload-

188 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nea

ing in the ports of Spain and reloading for the foreign
countries ; the doubling of commission and insurance, the
cost of storing, the increase of damages, the duties from
which the neighboring countries will not excuse us on
goods coming from Spain — and we shall see the decree
as a great alembic rarefying our crops unto the fifth
essence.

" The promises of our King, repeated in his letter of
April 21, 1764, made us hope that we should always
have the same laws to follow and the same judges to
listen to. But what a breach was made in this article
by M. Ulloa at the very beginning of his administration !
He has not yet taken possession ; his titles have been nei-
ther verified nor registered, nor even presented; no bond
attaches us yet to his authority; nothing but a respectful
deference for the character with which one sees him
clothed, promises to him our obedience; and severe pun-
ishments, chastisements unknown under the French
domination still existing, are inflicted already by his order
for the lightest faults, — assuming that they are faults.
One should not imagine that these false principles of
administration and the sad novelties of an unknown dom-
ination have been the only motives of our fears and of the
alarm in our families. The law of Spain may have its
pleasing features and advantages which we do not know ;
but the antipathy against humanity and the natural dis-
position to do harm, recognized in the person intrusted
with presenting that law to us, make us feel its hardest
consequences. The Spanish policy narrows the ports as
much as possible, to close them at its will against stran-

1768] CLOSING THE PASSES 189

gers and to forbid them entirely to the interloper. In
consequence of this law, the envoy of His Catholic Maj-
esty has closed all the passes of the Mississippi, with
the exception of one; but the one that he has chosen is
the shallowest, the most difficult, and the most perilous.
A law almost universal forbids establishments within
a certain distance of the citadels and fortifications of
frontier towns. M. Ulloa has concluded from this that
establishments formed at the beginning of the colony, by
concession of our prince, and under the eye of his gov-
ernors, should no longer subsist, on account of the proxim-
ity of an inclosure of stakes with which for some time
the city has been closed. Condemnation to mines is pre-
scribed by the law of Spain against malefactors and dan-
gerous men. M. Ulloa has not hesitated to pronounce
it against esteemed citizens, whose crime was no other
than to have been the interpreters of their compatriots
and the bearers of respectful representations declaring
our needs, and tending only to the encouragement of our
agriculture, the increase of our commerce, the importing
of things needed by us, and the general good of the
country. The packets that are remitted by worthy per-
sons deserve so much more diligence and exactitude that
they may interest the common cause. But those who have
taken charge of them have never held themselves respon-
sible for major force, contrary winds, and risks and
perils of the sea. To what hard and vexatious treat-
ments M. Ulloa subjected the Sieurs Gagnard and
Gachon, because their ships had not been able to remit
his packets at Havana on account of contrary weather!

190 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes

A decree of the Superior Council of this province had
forbidden, for just and wise reasons, the introduction of
domiciled negroes from Santo Domingo and other isl-
ands; but the execution of it was reduced to visiting the
slave ships on their arrival and sending back as soon as
possible those who were prohibited. M. Ulloa had
added to it the sequestration of the property, the im-
prisonment of the persons, and, without any menacing
ordinance, which should always precede the first punish-
ments, he has enforced it against Cadis and Leblanc,
whose sole crime was that they did not know of the ex-
istence of this decree. These facts, which are of notoriety,
and of which several persons have been the victims, in-
terest the public cause more than one can imagine. To
render the consequences better understood, we shall enter
into a detail of several.

"As for the interdiction of the passes of the Mississippi,
it must be known that M. Ulloa, in spite of all that was
told him and that he might have seen himself, or learned
by unfortunate events, had persisted obstinately in open-
ing only the pass northeast, where there is, in the highest
tides, only nine to ten feet of water ; forbidding that any
ship should enter or go out by any other pass, of which
the depth is usually from ten to twelve feet. To this pro-
bibition, which is so troublesome and so perilous, he had
added another that was still more so. This was the pro-
hibition to the pilots to sleep on board the vessels an-
chored in front of the pass, which the winds and the
want of water prevented them from entering. From
this arose repeated inconveniences and accidents, which,

ires] CLOSING THE PASSES 191

however, did not make him change his first arrangement.
The first inconvenience was the delay to the ships that
were going out, a delay costly and frequent at all times,
hut almost inevitable in winter, when the north-northeast
winds are frequent, which cannot serve for the northeast
pass, while they not only hring the ships out of the east
pass, but set them on their journey without their having
to wait after getting out of the pass. There was similar
difficulty in entering: when the winds were southwest and
south-southwest, one could not enter by the northeast
pass; those winds were favorable to the east pass. Be-
sides, as the Spanish officer at the Balize compelled the
ships that had entered the river to anchor in front of the
houses of the Balize, an anchorage exposed to all winds
and of little depth, there were great risks, which might
have been avoided by anchoring at Lafourche, or by con-
tinuing up the river, according to the former custom,
which was not more favorable to those against whom one
might have wished to close the port. Besides, in all
countries, when a coast pilot has set foot on board a ship,
he does not leave it before the ship has come in or gone
out, and is placed in safety ; the pilot navigating day and
night, according to the requirements of the case and the
vicissitudes of the weather. If this rule is ever to be
inviolate, without doubt it should be in our regions, sur-
rounded with low lands, and near a large river of which
the bottom is of mud in one place, of sand in another,
where from one hour to another the winds change and
the waters increase or diminish. Therefore, when the
pilots were prohibited from sleeping on board, in a sud-

192 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ms

den gust of wind, and at night, a captain who was not
familiar with the place, knowing neither the bottom nor
the passes, had no resource. Obliged to get under sail,
and often to abandon his anchors and his cables, he would
encounter the neighboring reefs, called the ' sheep,' or at
least fall under the wind of the pass, without hope of
going up for a long time. Finally, if he had the good
luck to sail, he would come back, after a great deal of
time and trouble, only to meet the same dangers.

" Navigation, that art so useful to states, does it de-
serve then that one should help nature to increase its
troubles and its perils? The fortune of ship-owners and
the lives of sailors, are they so little precious that the
caprice of one man should subject them to dangers al-
most inevitable? Question the captains and the crews
from Europe and the islands, who have come here for
the past two years and a half ; all have seen the new perils
invented by M. Ulloa; several have been the objects
and the victims of his bad combinations. Without men-
tioning the many examples, the accident to Captain Sar-
ron, at the mouth of the river, is striking. After re-
maining for a long time without being able to go out by
the northeast pass, the winds being north and north-
northeast, he entered the pass at last, the winds having
changed ; but the weather had lowered the depth to such
an extent that he remained in the pass. He was fortu-
nate enough to get back into the river. He went up to
the city to careen his ship a second time. Note that the
city is thirty leagues from the mouth of the river, that
one is often obliged to pull ships up the river with ropes,

ires] ACCIDENTS TO VESSELS 193

and that it happened several times that it took fifty or
sixty days to reach the city. The Sieur Sarron lost his
trip. It cost him a great deal, and if the east pass had not
heen forbidden, and it had heen allowed to pilots to fre-
quent it, he would have gone out without delay and with-
out danger.

"But at the very time when we are writing this Me-
morial, the trumpet announces to us that the rigging
and the artillery of the vessel Carlota, from Rochelle,
almost buried in the sands, are being sold at auction.
Captain Lacoste would not be lamenting the loss of his
ship if, when he was ready to enter, he had been per-
mitted at night to keep on board the pilot, who, not
being able to put him in the passes, would have indicated
to him a mud bottom from which he could have extricated
himself, as it happened to several, and among others to
Captain Chouriac.

" A x"ew persons make brick, which is used and con-
sumed here. The three principal brickyards are at the
three principal gates of this city. One of the largest,
where several men are employed, is the patrimony of
four minors, and is rented sometimes for more than
twelve thousand livres a year. This land can produce
no other revenue, and the men cannot produce enough
to feed them. The city, besides, feels no inconvenience
from the brickyards, and as the lands from which the
necessary clay is drawn are far from the highway, the
public road is neither narrowed nor embarrassed. M.
Ulloa attacked first the judicial tenant of this brickyard,
and absolutely forbade him to continue work under

194 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes

penalty of seizure of negroes, oxen, carts, and utensils.
The interested parties, after many efforts, succeeded
finally in obtaining from him the reason of this prohibi-
tion. He said that the holes from which the clay was
taken tended to destroy the salubrity of the air. They
provided themselves, to dissuade him, with reports of
physicians and surgeons. M. Lebeau, doctor of medi-
cine, in the pay of His Majesty, has even given on that
subject learned observations, convincing on every point.
As for the ordinary reflections, they were that the coun-
try had always been very healthful in spite of the holes
of the brickyards and the cypress swamps, which are on
both sides of the river, and surround the city; that, ac-
cording to that system, it would be necessary also to fill
the swamps, where the waters remain during the greater
part of the year. M. Ulloa had doubtless not foreseen
these objections, but he imagined and adopted another,
which he believed to be unanswerable; it is, that the es-
tablishments should be removed from the fortifications,
—giving this name to an inclosure of wooden spikes
which has nothing secret, and the approach to which is
without consequence. The affair, however, has dragged
along without any one being able to obtain from him
either a written order to cease or a verbal permission to
continue; and several persons have thought, with reason,
that brickmaking was coveted by one or two individuals,
which agreed very well with the inclination of the Span-
ish envoy to reduce everything to exclusive privileges.

" This indomitable inclination was manifested still
more in the prohibition that he made last year, of bring-

1768] IMPORTATION OF NEGROES 195

ing negroes into this colony, on the pretext of a competi-
tion that would have been harmful to an English mer-
chant of Jamaica, who had sent a boat to M. Ulloa to
win his favor for the enterprise of furnishing slaves.
This was a blow both at commerce and at agriculture.
It was taking away from the merchant a considerable
object, and restricting the means of the colonist to
fortify himself; for this competition, harmful to the
English dealer, became advantageous to the planter, who
would have given the preference to the cheapness and
better constitution of the slaves. What then! Take away
from new subjects the most natural means of profit, to
gratify a stranger with them! Is it thus that a new ad-
ministration announces itself? Has M. Ulloa received
these orders from his master? Who would dare presume
it? But is not one tempted to believe that vile reasons
of interest entered into the order of his exclusive pro-
jects?

" Our governors and magistrates have always been re-
garded by us as our fathers. Every time we thought
we should make to them our very humble representations
on our particular needs or on the general interest, we
were favorably received. If we address ourselves to the
governors and commandants, far from regarding us as
rebellious and mutinous (a favorite expression of M.
Ulloa), they approve our action as conforming to the
sentiment of the tine citizen. We have a proof of this
in the answer of M. Aubry, on June 28, 1765, to the
Memoir of the merchants of New Orleans. He dispels
our anxieties. Being the agent of the minister with re-

196 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes

gard to us, he communicates to us the orders he has re-
ceived from him, and gives us a copy of the letters he has
written in consequence to the officers of the posts. He
ends by encouraging us, and by asking from us a recip-
rocal zeal. If we address ourselves to the Council, our
memorials are examined there; if our requests appear
just, the voice of the attorney-general seconds ours, and
the court deliberates afterward. The event of the 29th
of October is a recent proof of this. Royal promises
made us hope for the same gentleness, the same liberty,
the same privileges in the new government. But, very
far from assuring us of the continuation of them, M.
Ulloa did not wish to allow even the appearances to sub-
sist any longer. The ordinance published on September
6, 1766, caused the merchants to make representations
which they addressed to their magistrates. M. Ulloa
treated them as seditious without knowing them; and
although our judges, through condescension, would have
suspended their judgment, he thought he should attempt
to make an example capable of frightening in advance
any one who should dare to say anything about his needs
or his interests. Merchants from this place, whom with-
out doubt he believed to be the principal authors of these
representations, attached to the country by their family,
their credit, their commerce, and their entire fortune, saw
themselves threatened with confiscation of their property
and imprisonment of their persons, — a judgment which
must have emanated from the sole tribunal of M. Ulloa,
and the effects of which they avoided with trouble.
" But who was, then, this officer of His Catholic Maj-

1768] ORDINANCE OF 1766 197

esty? With what commission Mas he provided? With
what unheard-of privilege was he clothed, to exercise
such a tyrannical authority, even before he had shown
his authority or his titles, which we do not yet know?
A confused rumor tells us that, during the long stay
which he made at the Balize with M. Aubry, our com-
mandant, there was passed between them an act under
private seal. If that is true, what has been his political
principle in not rendering this act public, and in not de-
claring his rank, unless it be to mask his tyranny under
cover of the French domination?

" The term tyranny appears strong. Let us add to it
that of vexation, to correspond with the truth of the
facts. With what threatening pomp, when at the same
time he was receiving from us only marks of a blind sub-
mission, have we seen him present with one hand the first
fruits of the new law, and the avenging sword of the
other ordinance of September 6, 1766, — first decree of
his will that has been published here, where the august
name of His Majesty has been abusively employed.
This ordinance, I say, has been promulgated in our pub-
lic places, to the sound of the drum and at the head of
twenty Spanish soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets.
Was it to insult us, or to impose silence upon our mur-
murs? In the first case, what would he then have done, this
Ulloa, in a conquered city captured by storm? What
display would he have chosen to proclaim his ordinances
there, since he has used a similar one with friends and
allies? Did he take us for savages of Peru and Mexico?
In the second case, the envoy from Spain was not igno-

198 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ires

rant of the fact that this ordinance, fruit of his erroneous
relations, was diametrically opposed to our welfare, and
capable at first sight of exciting our murmurs. As he
is loaded with our hatred, which he has so justly deserved,
his nation may reproach him again with having failed in
the rules of policy, by forcing us to fear the Spanish gov-
ernment.

" With indignation we have seen him negotiate with an
Englishman for the liberty of four Germans for fifteen
dollars a head; and when, on the day of the revolution,
M. Aubry, our commandant, urged by our prayers and
our entreaties, demanded them again with authority, we
saw those new freedmen descend from the Spanish frig-
ate where their new master detained them, and throAv
themselves on the levee at the knees of their liberators.
We saw those unfortunate victims of the scourge of
war, those persevering citizens, who have sacrificed their
hereditary possessions to patriotic sentiment, those un-
fortunate Acadians who, received formerly in our ports,
protected by our commandants and our judges, were be-
ginning to be consoled for their disasters and were labor-
ing to repair them, — we saw them frightened by the fren-
zied wrath of M. Ulloa, for such a slight subject as
very humble representations. Trembling at his threats,
they believed the liberty of their families at stake, and
they thought they saw themselves sold at auction to
pay for the rations of the King. Are we at Fez, or at
Morocco ?

" What has he not done, finally, this singular man, in
the acts even of private life? What humiliation did not

itg8] VIOLATION OF THE LAWS 199

the French nation receive from him during his stay here,
not only hy the violation of the rights of persons, but
also by scorn for the ecclesiastical laws? Besides ab-
staining from frequenting our churches, — through dis-
dain, without doubt, for the French Catholics, — and hav-
ing mass celebrated in his house, he has again caused
his chaplain to confer the sacrament of marriage upon
two persons, of whom the woman was a negro slave and
the man white, without the permission of the curate,
without any publication of banns, without any form or
solemnity required by the church, contrary to the Council
of Trent, and contrary to the precise disposition of all
ordinances, civil as well as canonical.

" What would be reprehensible, then, in the decision
which the conduct and the vexations of M. Ulloa have
made us take? What wrong have we done in shaking
off a foreign yoke, which the hand that imposed it ren-
dered still more overwhelming? What wrong have we
done, finally, in claiming back our laws, our country, our
sovereign, to vow to him the perseverance of our love?
Are, then, those praiseworthy attempts without an ex-
ample in our history? More than one town of France,
provinces even, — Quercy, Rouergue, Gascony, Cahors,
Montauban, — have they not several times broken the
English yoke with fury, or refused their fetters with
constancy? In vain did the treaties, the cessions, the or-
ders even renewed of our kings attempt sometimes what
the fortune of English arms was nevertheless incapable
of achieving; and that noble resistance to the will of the
natural sovereigns, far from exciting their anger, has

200 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ires

awakened their tenderness, attracted their assistance, and
effected a complete deliverance.

" But, furthermore, of what use to Spain would be
the colony of Louisiana? Inferior in its products to the
rich countries that Spain possesses, our country could
only be a rampart for Mexico. Would this rampart be
impenetrable to the forces of His Britannic Majesty,
who, already master of the country east of the Missis-
sippi, would share the navigation of the river with Spain,
and who has establishments to which the access is not
alone by the mouth of the river, but also by the immediate
proximity of the other countries of the north, where his
domination is established?

" The keeping of this colony by France protects better
the possessions of Spain on this side than the cession
made to that crown. The disadvantageous impressions
of Spain already received by the savage nations, which
have drawn upon M. Rios, Spanish captain, comman-
dant at the Illinois, not only insults, but threats, would
range the savages, in case of attack, with the hostile
party. On the contrary, those peoples would always
march with the French soldier, without asking for whom
one wishes to fight. That is the true rampart.

" Since Spain can find no advantage in the acquisi-
tion of this immense province, and since, certainly, the
strict limits of her commerce would reduce us almost to
mere existence, why should the two sovereigns agree to
render us unfortunate through the sole pleasure of doing
so? It is a crime to believe it, and such sentiments do
not enter the hearts of kings. The protection that ours

1768] UTILITY OF THE COLONY 201

promises us in his letter of April 21, 1764, from the new
sovereign, shows that they were conspiring for our hap-
piness ; and the respectful silence that we have kept thus
far on the reality of our interests, has without douht
prevented them from attaining the true means that might
make us happy. As for the utility that this colony may
be to France, a little reflection renders it apparent. The
loss of Canada having closed that outlet to the manufac-
tures with which France abounds, the preservation of
Louisiana may repair in a short time a loss so hurtful
to the national industry. The efforts of the true French-
men established here, and those who come every day to
establish themselves, may easily increase this trade of the
Missouri, opened already with happy results, and to the
aggrandizement of which are lacking the encourage-
ment and aid which the French domination alone can
procure. Even the savages from Canada come every
day to trade at the Illinois for French goods, which they
prefer to those that the English carry to their villages.
Let one cease to forge shackles for our activity, and soon
the English will cease to sell to France the peltries she con-
sumes. Our manufacturers, in exporting them, will find
an assured sale, which will bring profit ; and in the peltries
— to which may be added our indigo, our sugar, our cotton
— they will have the raw material that feeds factories
and gives work to laborers. If, then, the ability for man-
ufactures in the kingdom is so well recognized that it
has drawn to them at all times a particular protection
from the sovereign, is it not in the political order that
this protection be extended to preserve for them re-

202 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ires

sources for which it would use perhaps the power of the
state, if it were a question of acquiring them?

" Join to these considerations the reimbursement — sus-
pended since 1759 — of the seven millions of royal paper
that formed our currency and the basis of our commerce ;
join the union by reciprocal obligations of the merchants
of France to us and of us to the merchants of France,
who await their fate from that which it may please the
lord our King to give to these finances ; add to it our ob-
ligation to work for the reestablishment of our shattered
fortunes, without being able to get any aid from those
old funds, shares formerly of any one in proportion to
his economy, his emulation, or his patrimony, — and it
will be seen that our new efforts deserve to be seconded
by our King.

" As we are zealous observers of all the respect due
to crowned heads, and of the mutual attentions that civil-
ized peoples owe to each other, we should be in despair
if our deeds were not to conform to them. There is no-
thing offensive to the Court of Madrid in the exposition
of our needs and in the assurances of our love which we
carry to the feet of our august sovereign. We dare hope
that those marks of our zeal will serve again to prove
to nations the truth of the title ' Well-beloved ' which the
entire world gives to him, and which no other monarch
has enjoyed until now. Perhaps one will say at Madrid
even: ' Happy this prince our ally, who finds for obstacle
to his treaty of cession the attachment of his subjects to
his domination and to his glorious person!'

1768] APPEAL TO LOUIS XV 203

" We are not ignorant that the envoy from Spain took,
hefore his departure, and is still gathering through emis-
saries, certificates from some individuals who reside
among us; mercenary clients whom he attached to him-
self by brilliant promises, and who are here seeking to
proselyte by persuading the simple and frightening the
weak. But whatever these hardly authentic certificates
may contain, they will never belie the general voice and
public notoriety. The Genoese, English, and Dutch
merchants, witnesses of the revolution, will testify to the
truth in their country. They will certify, in a much more
certain manner, that our pavilion rose, without the Span-
ish frigate having received the least insult to its own;
that M. Ulloa embarked with all the liberty possible
and without any act on our part that appeared even im-
proper; that then and since we have redoubled our cour-
tesies and attentions toward the other officers of His
Catholic Majesty; that during the three days of the rev-
olution (a thing unique and singular, by the avowal of
the Spaniards themselves) there rose not from among
more than twelve hundred men of the militia, among the
women, the children, the whole people, any cry injurious
to the nation, and the oidy cries that were heard, in which
the strangers themselves took part, were: ' Long live the
King of France! ' ' Long live Louis the Well-beloved! '

" It is to His beneficent Majesty that we, planters,
merchants, and colonists of Louisiana, address our very
humble prayers that he should take back the colony in-
stantlv; and as we are resolved to live and to die under

204 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [lira

his cherished domination, determined to do all that may
he required for the prosperity of his arms, the extension
of his power, the glory of his reign, we beg him to be
willing to preserve to us our patriotic name, our laws, and
our privileges.

" At New Orleans,

"At Denis Braud's, Printer to the King.

" With permission of the Ordaining Commissioner.
MDCCLXVIII."

We have given in full the translation of the Memo-
rial of 1768 on account of its interest and importance.
It is a noble document, and it does honor to the men of
that time. We can understand their indignation at being
rudely torn from their country and harassed by unwise
commercial ordinances issued by a man who had never
publicly shown his commission as governor for Spain.
We see in this Memorial hatred for the foreigner, and
a spirit of independence combined with great love for
France. The eulogy of the King appears fulsome to us ;
but we should remember that the colonists had been
brought up to venerate their monarch, and they were
at too great a distance from the mother country to be
able to understand thoroughly the despicable character
of Louis XV. The last words of the Memorial are very
pathetic, and we should have sympathy for men who are
praying for the preservation of their patriotic name, of
their laws and their privileges.

On page 17 of the Memorial 3 were words insulting to
the Spanish nation: "... M. Ulloa, loaded with our

1768] WORDS ERASED BY AUBRY 205

hatred, which he has so justly deserved. Cannot his nation
reproach him with having failed in the rides of the Span-
ish policy, which, gentle and insinuating in the beginning,
becomes tyrannical only when the yoke has been im-
posed? " Aubry had these words erased, and caused three
hundred copies to be suppressed, which had already been
printed with the permission of Foucault.

CHAPTER X

O'Reilly in Louisiana — The Martyrs of the
Revolution of 1768

Ulloa's account of the Revolution of 1768— True motive of the opposition
to Ulloa — Return of Lesassier— The republican spirit in the colony —
General O'Reilly's arrival— O'Reilly takes possession— O'Reilly asks of
Aubry the names of the conspirators — Aubry acts as informer — Aubry's
account of Lafr£niere's doings— Aubry's account of the Revolution —
Aubry names the conspirators — His contemptible letter — Arrest of the
chiefs of the Revolution — Death of Viller^ — Bossu's account of Viller£'s
death— Character of Viller6 — O'Reilly's proclamation— O'Reilly's address
to the conspirators— The property of the prisoners confiscated— The in-
habitants take the oath of allegiance— Aubry's report to the French min-
ister—His tragic death— Testimony against Foucault— He is released— Act
of accusation against the prisoners— Part taken in the conspiracy by each
of the prisoners — Sentence — The execution — Burning of the "Memorial
of the Planters and Merchants" — No excuse for O'Reilly's cruelty — O'Reilly
went beyond his instructions — Release of Petit and other prisoners from
Morro Castle— Bienville de Noyan at Santo Domingo — End of the drama.

NTONIO DE ULLOA left New
Orleans on November 1, 1768, ar-
rived at Havana on December 3,
and immediately departed for Ca-
diz. His account of the events
leading to his expulsion from Lou-
isiana is very interesting. He re-
lates that the conspirators met at the house of a
widow named Pradel, on a plantation adjoining New
Orleans. He speaks bitterly of Lafreniere, and
says the latter was the author of the celebrated Me-

206

nee] ULLOA'S NARRATIVE 207

morial of the inhabitants on the event of October 29,
1768. He speaks of a journey of Bienville and Masan
to Pensacola to ask aid of the British governor in erect-
ing the colony into a republic under the protection of
England. He declares that Villere and Lery, relatives
of Lafreniere, had influenced the old Chevalier d'Arens-
bourg, commandant at the German Coast, and that the
latter had determined to defend liberty and not be a sub-
ject of the King of Spain. He says also that Lafreniere
and Foucault took advantage of the discontent caused by
the decree about commerce to excite the merchants against
the Spanish domination.

It is but natural that Ulloa should have wished to lay
all the blame for the Revolution of 1768 on the people of
Louisiana; but he certainly mistook their motive when he
attributed their opposition to him to discontent caused by
commercial decrees. All the colonists were animated by
the spirit of the old D'Arensbourg: they wished to defend
liberty, and would not submit to a foreign yoke. One of
their delegates, St. Lette, remained in France, but the
other, Lesassier, returned to Louisiana and announced,
as Milhet had done previously, the failure of his mission.
The deputies, however, had obtained, says Martin, " an
arrest of the King's council of the 23d of March, which
is believed to be the last act of the French government
concerning Louisiana." It referred to the payment of
the bills emitted by the colonial government.

At the very moment of Ulloa's expulsion the Spanish
government seemed inclined to take possession of the
colony in a more determined manner, and Urissa, who

208 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ires

had been appointed intendant of Louisiana, had arrived
at Havana with eight hundred soldiers destined for the
new Spanish colony, and was to carry there one million
dollars for the King's service. Gayarre believes that the
Revolution would not have taken place if Urissa had
reached Louisiana with the soldiers and the million of the
King of Spain. We do not share this opinion; for, as
Louis had disowned his subjects in Louisiana, the die was
cast. The colonists wished no longer to submit to any des-
pot, and they formed the plan of a republic on the banks
of the Mississippi. Gayarre himself has said: " There
is no doubt that the colonists would have eagerly adopted
this form of government, had it been possible at the time,
for it must be recollected that, from the earliest existence
of the colony, almost all its governors had uniformly com-
plained of the republican spirit which they had observed
in the inhabitants." Our ancestors were evidently mis-
taken in their noble efforts, and their plan was but a
dream; for how were they to resist the power of the
King of Spain, with a population of fewer than twelve
thousand souls, of whom half were slaves ? But they gave
Louisiana the glory of having thought of establishing a
republican form of government in America several years
before Jefferson wrote his immortal Declaration of In-
dependence, which gave birth to our United States.

When the news of the events of October, 1768, reached
Spain, it was decided by the Council of the King that
the authority of His Catholic Majesty should be main-
tained and troops be sent to subdue the insurgents. Don
Alejandro O'Reilly was appointed governor and captain-

1769] O'REILLYS ARRIVAL 209

general of the province, and he arrived at the Balize on
July 23, on a frigate accompanied by twenty-three trans-
ports, having three thousand soldiers on board. 1 O'Reilly
sent Don Francisco Bouligny to announce his arrival to
Aubry, and the news was received by the inhabitants with
consternation. " Resistance was spoken of," says Martin,
but it was finally resolved to send three delegates to
O'Reilly; they were Lafreniere, Marquis, and Milhet.
The attorney-general, the valiant Lafreniere, spoke to
General O'Reilly with great dignity, and assured him
of the submission of the colony to the orders of the Kings
of France and Spain. He added: " We beg your Ex-
cellency not to consider it a country to be conquered. The
orders of which you are the bearer are sufficient to put
you in possession, and make more impression on hearts
than the arms which you have in your hand. . . . The
colony claims of your kindness privileges, and of your
equity sufficient delays for those who shall desire to emi-
grate." 2 O'Reilly replied that he would do all in his
power to learn the truth, and that he should be in despair
if he did the least harm to any one. He said he would
have gone up the river as far as the Illinois to have the
banner of his King respected, and he asked the three rep-
resentatives of the colonists how they, a handful of men,
could have believed that they were able to resist one of
the most powerful kings in Europe, and that their King
could have listened to the cries of a seditious people.

At the word " seditious," Marquis interrupted the gen-
eral and explained the conduct of the colonists. O'Reilly
answered him with gentleness, and said he would listen

210 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

1769

to them with pleasure when the time should come. He
invited them to take dinner with him, " treated them,"
says Bouligny, " with all the politeness possible, and sent
them away full of admiration for his talents, and with
good hopes for the oblivion of their past faults."

Lafreniere, Marquis, and Milhet reported O'Reilly's
words to their countrymen, and all were quieted. The
men who had already taken up arms and gone to New
Orleans returned home, and several persons who had in-
tended to leave the colony decided to remain.

On August 15, 1769, Aubry went to pay his respects
to O'Reilly and to take his orders with regard to the
ceremony of taking possession of the province. In the
night of August 17, the frigate on board of which was the
general was moored at the quay of New Orleans with
twenty-three other ships. On the eighteenth, at noon,
Aubry caused the rally to be beat, and the French troops
and the militia formed on one side of the public square,
facing the vessels. At half -past five the frigate fired a
salute, General O'Reilly landed, and three thousand sol-
diers marched in columns from the ships and formed
rapidly on the other three sides of the square. Aubry
placed himself at the head of his troops, in the presence
of all the inhabitants, to receive the general, who came
to him and asked him to read to the people the orders
and powers which he had communicated to the French
commandant. The latter did so, and delivered the fol-
lowing address :

Gentlemen: You have just heard the sacred orders of their
Majesties — Most Christian and Catholic— with regard to the

n fi 9] SPAIN TAKES POSSESSION 211

province of Louisiana, which has been ceded irrevocably to the
Crown of Spain. From this moment you are the subjects of His
Catholic Majesty, and in virtue of the orders of the King, my
master, I release you from the oath of fidelity which you owed to
His Most Christian Majesty.

Aubry then handed to O'Reilly the keys of the gates
of New Orleans, and immediately volleys were fired by
the Spanish frigate and by all the troops, and cries of
' Vive le roi ! " were heard on all sides. The posts were all
relieved, and the Spanish flag was raised at each one.
; ' We went afterward to the church," says Aubry, " and
after having attended a Te Deum, this memorable day
and august ceremony ended with the march of all the
troops, who defiled before us with a redoubtable order
and pomp."

On August 19, O'Reilly went with his staff to pay his
official visit to the French commandant. On the same
day he wrote him a letter to ask of him an account of
what had taken place in the colony in October, 1768, and
Aubry had the weakness or the cowardice to act as in-
former against his own countrymen. It was not neces-
sary that he should give any information to O'Reilly.
As soon as the latter had taken possession of Louisiana
in the name of Spain, Aubry's duties as governor ceased,
and he should have tried to protect men whose sole
crime was that they had made earnest efforts to remain
Frenchmen. Posterity must certainly judge Aubry very
severely for his conduct at the time of the Revolution of
1768, and until his departure from Louisiana in 1769.
Already, on February 15, 1769, he had written to the
Captain-General of Cuba: " I hope that M. d'Ulloa ren-

212 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [n<»

ders me justice, and that he will have given a good testi-
mony of my conduct; for no one more than I venerates
and loves the Spanish nation. This revolution dishonors
the French people of Louisiana."

In his letter to Aubry asking for information, O'Reilly
said:

It is very essential that I should know the person who wrote
and printed, and with what authority were printed and spread
among the public, the document bearing the title : " Decree
of the Council," dated October 29, 1768, and the other bear-
ing the title : " Memorial of the Inhabitants of Louisiana on
the event of October 29, 1768," as all the clauses of the two
documents require my attention. I have entire confidence in your
information, and I beg you again to omit no circumstance about
the men and the things concerning this conspiracy.

On August 20, 1769, 3 Aubry answered O'Reilly's let-
ter and gave him a full account of the events of October,
1768. He named as the chiefs of " this criminal enter-
prise": Masan, Lafreniere, Marquis, Noyan, Bienville,
and Villere, " all the wealthiest and most distinguished
in the country." He said that Foucault was very guilty,
and that he led the people to believe that, in the colonies,
the governors from Spain were tyrants and the people
slaves. Aubry said further: " The hatred generally felt
against M. Ulloa, and the copy of a decree of His
Catholic Majesty, which deprives this colony of the com-
merce of the French islands, have been in great part the
cause of the revolt. The planters feared they would not
be able any longer to sell their indigo or their lumber;
the merchants foresaw the fall of their commerce; the

1769] AUBRY AN INFORMER 213

Council feared to be suppressed; all together leagued
themselves to send away the governor, and to free them-
selves from the Spanish domination."

Aubry added that the secret of the conspiracy was so
well kept that he sent for M. de Lafreniere, who told
him that a request, addressed to M. Foucault, had been
signed, asking him to call an extraordinary meeting of
the Council, in order to send away M. d'Ulloa and the
Spaniards who had accompanied him. Lafreniere added
that everybody was taking up arms, and that a banner
was to be raised in the public square at New Orleans.
Aubry told Lafreniere that he should oppose the move-
ment, and that much blood would be spilled. He sent
Judice, commandant of the Acadians, to order the latter
not to take up arms, under penalty of being treated as
rebels; and he asked Foucault what he intended to do.
The commissary replied with ambiguity, and Aubry
told him that he would be utterly lost if he did not oppose
such a rebellion. On October 27, Governor Ulloa said
that, as he had not sufficient force, he would submit to
the decision of the Council, in order to avoid the effusion
of French and Spanish blood. Aubry sent for Lafre-
niere and several militia officers, and they promised that
everything would be countermanded and that only depu-
ties from each organization should appear before the
Council. On October 28, " I heard," said Aubry, " that
the cannon which were at the Tchoupitoulas gate had been
spiked, from fear that I should fire on the planters who
were to come from that side. On the same day I called
M. de Lafreniere to my house; I represented to him that

214, A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [k»

he would have to reproach himself for the ruin of his
country I told him, at the same time, that chiefs of con-
spiracies had always had tragic ends."

In the evening of October 28, in spite of Aubry's
orders, Villere entered the city at the head of four hun-
dren Germans, Acadians, and other militiamen; the
militia below New Orleans entered also, and everything
was in commotion. Aubry then advised Ulloa to retire
with his wife, that same evening, on board the Spanish
frigate. On October 29 nearly a thousand persons as-
sembled in the public square, with a white banner, crying,
"Vive le roi de France!" and wishing no other king.
Aubry went to the meeting of the Council and protested
against the order of expulsion of Ulloa. Marquis, with
fifty militiamen, had decided to accompany Ulloa to
the Balize, and to stay there to oppose all Spaniards who
might come. Aubry ordered them to desist from their
undertaking, or he would fire upon them, and he was
obeyed " for the first time," says he, " since the revolt."

" A thousand mad projects," continued Aubry, " suc-
ceeded one another; there was a design of erecting this
country into a republic; a petition was presented to the
Council to establish a bank like those of Amsterdam and
Venice, for these are the identical terms which they used.
M. de Lafreniere is the author of the petition. The Sieur
Doucet composed the Memorial of the planters." Aubry,
then, in his letter, spoke severely of Marquis, Villere, and
Masan, and said that by most audacious writings and
most rebellious talk the conspirators had resorted to every
means to excite the people and give them a horror of the

1769] DEATH OF VILLERE 215

Spanish government. He concluded his letter with these
words: " I shall communicate to your Excellency the
decrees, the memorials, and all the documents of iniqui-
ties which were fabricated in those times of confusion and
disorder. I shall deliver the protests which I have made
against these acts of injustice. My conduct will be laid
before the judge the most equitable and the most en-
lightened. His approval, which I dare flatter myself I
have merited, will be the greatest honor and the finest
recompense that I shall ever be able to receive." It was
impossible to write anything more contemptible, more
cringing, more cowardly than the letter of Aubry to
O'Reilly.

On August 21, 1769, O'Reilly caused to be arrested
Lafreniere, Noyan, and Boisblanc, members of the Coun-
cil, and Braud, the printer, while these gentlemen were
attending a reception at the governor's house. 4 Shortly
afterward he arrested also Marquis, a former officer;
Doucet, a lawyer; Petit and Masan, planters; Carresse,
Poupet, and Jean and Joseph Milhet, all four merchants.
Joseph Villere, whom O'Reilly wished also to arrest, was
on his plantation on the German Coast, and was about
to go to the English possessions, when he received a letter
from Aubry saying that he had nothing to fear from
O'Reilly, and that he could come to New Orleans in per-
fect safety. Bossu, who was a contemporary of Villere,
describes the latter 's death in the following manner: " M.
de Villere, confiding in this assurance, descended the river
to go to New Orleans. What was his surprise when, on
presenting himself at the barriers, he found himself ar-

[

216 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

[1769

rested! Sensitive to this outrage, he could not moderate
his indignation. In a first transport, he struck the Span-
ish officer who commanded the post. The latter's soldiers
threw themselves upon him, and pierced him with bayo-
nets. He was carried on board a frigate that was in the
port, where he died a few days afterward."

Judge Martin gives a different account of Villere's
death. He says, like Bossu, that Villere received a letter
from Aubry reassuring him and advising him to return
to the city. On arriving at the gate, he was arrested and
sent on board a frigate in the river. His wife approached
the frigate in a boat, and was ordered away. " She made
herself known, and solicited admission to her husband,
but was answered that she could not see him, as the cap-
tain was on shore, and had left orders that no communi-
cation should be allowed with the prisoner. Villere rec-
ognized his wife's voice, and insisted on being permitted
to see her. On this being refused, a struggle ensued, in
which he fell, pierced by the bayonets of his guards. His
bloody shirt, thrown into the boat, announced to the lady
that she had ceased to be a wife; and a sailor cut the
rope that fastened the boat to the frigate."

Martin's narrative is very dramatic, but Bossu's ac-
count is more likely to be the true one. Champigny,
also a contemporary of Villere, gives about the same ac-
count as Bossu, and adds: 5 " None could be braver than
Villere. Canadian by origin, he had everything: valor,
fortitude, and freedom of mind; violent and fiery, but
frank, loyal, and firm in his resolves. He was of good
size, well made, his step firm, his look bold and martial,
his devotion to his King rather a frenzy than a form of

1769] O'REILLY'S PROCLAMATION 217

patriotism. Had all the colonists thought as he did, had
they had his firm resolve, I douht whether a single Span-
iard would ever have reached New Orleans. He had a
genius for war, and was the chief elect of the Acadians
and Germans in case of a rupture, and under his orders
that hrave hody would have been invincible. I regret to
leave a man of this mold; French patriots must strew
laurels over his grave." The son of this heroic man be-
came the second American governor of Louisiana.

On the day of arrest of the chiefs of the Revolution
of 1768, O'Reilly issued the following proclamation: 6

In the name of the King. — Don Alejandro O'Reilly, Com-
mander of Benfayan in the Order of Alcantara, Lieutenant-Gen-
eral and Inspector-General of the armies of His Catholic Majesty,
Captain-General and Governor of the province of Louisiana.

By virtue of the orders and powers which we possess from
His Majesty, we declare to all the inhabitants of the province of
Louisiana that, whatever just cause the past events may have
given His Catholic Majesty to make them feel his indignation,
he wishes to listen to-day only to his clemency toward the public,
persuaded that it has sinned only by allowing itself to be led
astray by the intrigues of a few ambitious and fanatic men, of
evil intent, who have rashly abused its ignorance and its too great
credulity. The latter alone will answer for their crimes, and will
be judged according to the laws.

An act so generous should assure His Majesty that his new sub-
jects will endeavor to merit, by their fidelity, zeal, and obedience,
the favor which he does to them and the protection which he grants
them from this moment.

This proclamation was posted and published through-
out the city, to the sound of drums and other instruments,
accompanied by all the grenadiers. It allayed the general

218 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [n*

fear, as it showed that the vengeance of the Spaniards
would he satisfied with the punishment of the men who
had been arrested.

Aubry's account of the arrest is interesting. 7 He says
that on August 21, at eight o'clock in the morning, the
general communicated to him, for the first time, the or-
ders of the King to have arrested and judged, according
to the laws, the chiefs of the conspiracy. O'Reilly caused
them all to assemble at his house, under different pre-
texts, and in Aubry's presence spoke to them as follows :

Gentlemen : The Spanish nation is revered and respected by
the whole earth. Louisiana is then the only country where it is
ignored, and where there is a lack of the regard due to it. His
Catholic Majesty is greatly offended at the violence which was
used and at the outrage committed against his governor, his
officers, and his troops. He has been very much offended at the
writings which were published, and which outrage his government
and the Spanish nation. He orders me to have arrested and
judged, according to the laws, the authors of all these violences.

After reading the orders referred to, O'Reilly added :

Gentlemen : You are accused of being the chiefs of this revolt.
I arrest you in the name of the King. I trust that you will be able
to prove your innocence, and that I shall soon be able to return to
you the swords which I have just taken away from you. You
will produce your defense before the equitable judges who are
before you. It is they who will judge you.

The general said also that their property would be
confiscated according to the custom in Spain; but he
promised the prisoners to give to their wives and children

1769] DEATH OF AUBRY 219

all the aid they might need. Lafreniere and his compa-
nions were then taken hy several officers and a detach-
ment of grenadiers to the places where they were to be
kept, some to the barracks and others to the Spanish ships.

On August 26 the principal inhabitants of the city and
of the country took the oath of allegiance to the King of
Spain, before O'Reilly. He told them, according to Au-
bry, that they were free to take the oath or not, and that
he would give them all the time and facilities necessary
to settle their affairs and retire to their country. Such a
permission, under the circumstances, was derisive, and
every one must have understood the risk he would run
were he to attempt to leave a Spanish province of which
possession had been taken with such a display of force.

Aubry, by order of O'Reilly, arrested Foucault, and
on September 1 gave to the French minister in Paris an
account of what had taken place in the colony after
O'Reilly's arrival. He is not ashamed to say that he gave
the Spanish governor the names of the principal authors
of the events of 1768, and he praises " the generosity and
the kindness " of O'Reilly in having caused such a small
number of men to be arrested, while there were many
others whose criminal conduct should have exposed them
to the same fate. He adds that the new Spanish governor
" will make the happiness of the colony." Aubry was
crazy, or he was the most contemptible of men. The peo-
ple of Louisiana have accepted the latter opinion, and his
tragic end has excited no pity. He left the colony on
November 23, 1769, on board the Pere de Famille, and
perished in the wreck of that ship at the mouth of the

220 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes*

Gironde on February 17, 1770. According to a certifi-
cate of Cabaret de Trepis, captain of infantry in Loui-
siana (reproduced in facsimile by Dr. G. Devron, in
" Comptes Rendus de l'Athenee Louisianais," July,
1897), Aubry left the colony with two boxes filled with
silver, containing each ten thousand livres at least ; a bag
containing also an amount of money which Trepis does
not know; and a purse full of gold, — fifteen to sixteen
hundred livres. Champigny accuses Aubry of having re-
ceived from O'Reilly twelve thousand Spanish ecus and a
life pension as the price of his infamy. Whether this
assertion is true or not, the name of the man who was
Ulloa's sycophant and O'Reilly's informer will ever be
held in contempt by all brave and loyal men.

We have seen that Foucault was arrested by Aubry
as ordered by O'Reilly. The testimony of Garic, former
clerk of the Superior Council, was very damaging to the
commissary. Garic said that Foucault called a meeting
of the Council for October 28, 1768, at which meeting
the only persons present were Foucault, De Kernion, De
Launay, De Laplace, Lafreniere, Garderat, assistant
clerk, and Garic himself. Business of little importance
was transacted, then the petition of the planters and mer-
chants was presented and referred to a committee, com-
posed of De Kernion and De Launay, who were to ex-
amine the petition and make report to the Council the
next day. The attorney-general, Lafreniere, said that
acting councilors should be named to take the place of
those who were absent on account of sickness. Foucault,
then, together with Lafreniere, proposed the names of

i76<.] RELEASE OF FOUCAULT 221

Hardy de Boisblanc, Thomassin, Fleuriau, Bobe, Du-
cros, and De Labarre. The Council met on October 29,
and the decree against Ulloa was rendered. Garic added
that Foncault invited them all to a dinner, which lasted
from two o'clock till five, and that, on the instigation of
Noyan and some others, the party at Foucault's house,
with the exception of De Lalande d'Apremont and De
Kernion, went to the barracks, where were assembled the
planters and merchants, and afterward to Aubry's house,
where Foucault and Laf reniere spoke to the French com-
mandant and asked him to take the reins of government.
In spite of Aubry's accusations and of Garic's testimony,
Foucault declared that he acted as an officer of the King
of France and was accountable only to that monarch for
his actions. He was sent to France, where he was at first
thrown into the Bastille, but afterward released and re-
ceived an office in the East Indies. Braud argued that,
being the official printer, he was bound to print whatever
Foucault, the commissaire ordonnatcur ', ordered him. He
was discharged.

The accusation against the prisoners was presented by
Don Felix del Rey, and related all the circumstances
leading to Ulloa's expulsion. It laid stress on the out-
rage against the royal authority by the fact that the com-
missary, Loyola; the contador, Gayarre; and the trea-
surer, Navarro, were held as hostages to guarantee the
debts contracted in the name of the court of Spain. " The
prosecution," says Judge Martin, " was grounded on a
statute of Alfonso the Eleventh, which is the first law of
the seventh title of the first partida, and denounces the

222 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [i 7 <»

punishment of death and confiscation of property against
those who excite any insurrection against the King or
state, or take up arms under pretense of extending their
liberty or rights, and against those who give them any
assistance."

The act of accusation gives in detail the part taken in
the conspiracy by each of the prisoners. 8 It says that
Lafreniere and Foucault were the principal chiefs, and
that Marquis was the military commander of the insur-
gents ; that he had been one of the most ardent to solicit
the departure of the Spanish frigate, as she represented on
the river the odious Spanish domination; that he had
formed the project of establishing a republic in Louisi-
ana, which should be governed by a council of forty mem-
bers and a protector, elected by the people. Noyan was
accused of attending the meetings that preceded the in-
surrection, and of having expressed openly his desire to
see Ulloa chased from the colony. It was he who had the
staff for the French banner made on his plantation, and
he excited the Acadians to revolt. He waited for them
at the Tchoupitoulas gate, on the eve of the insurrection,
and provided them with provisions and arms. Carresse
drew up the petition of the inhabitants to the Council and,
with Marquis and Masan, presented it to Foucault. He
furnished food to the revolted Acadians; he presented
himself with a band of insurgents at the door of the
Council to prevent the councilors from leaving the room
before having given an opinion favorable to the petition
of the rebels ; he went with other accomplices to the coun-
cil-chamber to know what had been the decision of the

1769] ACT OF ACCUSATION 223

Council; he embarked in a boat, as an officer of the militia,
to follow Don Antonio <le Ulloa and occupy the fort at
the Balize. He was one of those who formed the project
of a bank to be called Mont de Piete; he furnished Dou-
cet with materials to write the outrageous " Memorial of
the Planters and Merchants " ; he wrote to Laf reniere :
' This day will be the most beautiful in your life; we hope
to see revive in Louisiana the orator of Rome and M. de
Meaupou to uphold the rights of the nation." Joseph
Milhet caused the petition to the Council to be signed,
and he presented himself as officer of a company of mili-
tia that had taken up arms to support the rebellion. He
was one of those who went to the Chapitoulas (Tchoupi-
toulas) gate to receive the Acadians, and he allowed the
arms of some of the insurgents to be deposited at his
house. With regard to the other insurgents, it is said that
Petit himself untied the rope that held to the shore the ship
in which Ulloa was expelled. Doucet was the author of
that " most insolent and outrageous manifesto," the " Me-
morial of the Planters and Merchants." Poupet was the
treasurer of the rebels, and took up arms with the insur-
gents. Jean Milhet also took up arms. Masan was one
of the promoters of the insurrection and was second to
sign the petition to the Council. He was one of those who
handed it to Foucault. Several seditious assemblies were
held in his house; and an aggravating circumstance was,
that he was one of the most highly esteemed and popular
inhabitants, on account of his birth, his wealth, and the
cross of St. Louis with which he was decorated. There
is no doubt that his example was a powerful incentive to

224 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [no

animate the people and induce them to share in the crime.
Hardy de Boisblanc was one of the extraordinary acting
councilors named by Foucault and Laf reniere, and he car-
ried to the Council, in his pocket, his written opinion, and
maintained it vigorously. It was he who conducted the
establishment of the Mont de Piete. Villere, who was
dead, was not omitted in the act of persecution. He was
said to have caused the insurrection of the Germans, of
whom he was the captain, and to have captured at the
German Coast part of the money sent by Ulloa in pay-
ment for grain that the Germans had consumed in the ser-
vice of the King of Spain, wishing in this way to prevent
the Germans and Acadians, who had already risen, to
return to their duty.

The prisoners denied the jurisdiction of O'Reilly's
court, and argued that they had committed no act of in-
subordination against Spain, as Ulloa had not exhibited
bis credentials and had not taken possession in the name
of the King of Spain. The tribunal, however, con-
demned Joseph Petit to imprisonment for life, Balthazar
Masan and Julien Jerome Doucet to imprisonment for
ten years, and Pierre Hardy de Boisblanc, Jean Milhet,
and Pierre Poupet to imprisonment for six years. They
were all taken to Havana and placed in Morro Castle.
Nicolas Chauvin de Laf reniere; Jean-Baptiste Noyan,
his son-in-law; Pierre Carresse; Pierre Marquis; and Jo-
seph Milhet were condemned, " as chiefs and principal
promoters of the conspiracy," to the ordinary punishment
of the gallows (as is required by the infamy which they
have incurred, ipso jure, by their participation in a crime

1769] THE EXECUTION 225

so horrible), to be led to the gallows on asses, with the
rope around their neck, to be hanged until death shall
follow, and to remain hanging until I [O'Reilly] decide
otherwise." 9

Joseph Villere's memory was condemned as infamous;
all the copies of the celebrated " Memorial of the Planters
and Merchants of Louisiana on the event of October 29,
1768," and other papers relative to the conspiracy, were
ordered to be burned by the hand of the public execu-
tioner; and the property of each of the accused was or-
dered confiscated for the benefit of the Crown. The
judgment was rendered on October 24, and on October
25, 1769, the five condemned men were executed in the
square of the barracks of the Lisbon regiment, which were
on the upper side of the convent of the Ursulines, on
Chartres Street. In the archives of the sisters mention
is made of the fact that the nuns heard distinctly the firing
of the rifles that put an end to the noble lives of Lafre-
niere, Joseph Milhet, Noyan, Marquis, and Carresse. 10
These heroic men were shot by Spanish soldiers, as there
was no hangman in the colony. Lafreniere and his com-
panions died with the greatest courage, and have left
names that will be honored in Louisiana to the end of
time, together with those of Villere and the unfortunate
prisoners of Morro Castle.

The following is the report of the execution, certified
by the clerk of the expedition: "

In the execution of what was ordered by the definitive sentence
which it has pleased his Excellency Don Alejandro O'Reilly, Com-

226 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [itm

mandcr of Benfayan of the Order of Alcantara, Lieutenant-Gen-
eral and Inspector-General of the armies of His Majesty, his Gov-
ernor and Captain-General of this province of Louisiana, etc.,
pronounced on the 24th instant, I certify that, being at this hour,
to wit, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, at the barracks of
the Lisbon regiment, where were in prison for this cause Nicolas
Chauvin Lafreniere, Pierre Marquis, Joseph Milhet, Jean-Bap-
tiste Noyan, and Pierre Carresse, all of the French nation, they
were taken out of the prison where they were and led under good
and sure guard of officers and grenadiers, bound by the arms,
to the place of execution, for the fulfilment of the above-men-
tioned sentence of death pronounced against them; where was a
large number of troops which formed a square. And, having ad-
vanced to the place where were the culprits, I read in substance
the above-mentioned sentence to make known publicly how well-
founded was the justice which the King our sovereign, and in
his name his Excellency, caused to be executed on these persons
as principal chiefs and authors of the conspiracy which broke
out in this colony, on the 29th of October of last year, 1768,
against the authority and the government of the sovereign ; which
reading was repeated in the French language by the Sieur Henry
Garderat, assisted by the clerk of court, the Sieur Jean-Baptiste
Garic, named by his Excellency, and for greater solemnity by the
lieutenant of artillerj' Don Juan Kely, one of the interpreters
named by his Excellency; that, in accordance with the order of
his Excellency, the sentence was published in a loud voice by the
public crier of this city ; that soon afterward the culprits, having
been placed at the spot where they were to suffer the death
penalty, were shot; that having approached immediately after-
ward the place above-mentioned, I recognized that the said five
culprits had received different wounds in the head and in the body,
that they were without movement and absolutely deprived of life.
At New Orleans, October 25, 1769, in testimony of the truth :
Francois Xavier Rodriguez, Clerk of the Expedition.

1769] O'REILLY'S CRUELTY 227

On October 20, Rodriguez certifies that, on that day,
at three o'clock in the afternoon, he caused to be burned
in the public square the " Memorial of the Planters and
Merchants," and other papers relating to the same affair.
The clerk says he remained at the place until all the
papers were reduced to ashes.

The following lines from Judge Martin's History of
Louisiana are very significant when we consider the ju-
dicial and impartial mind of the author:

Posterity, the judge of men in power, will doom this act to
public execration. No necessity demanded, no policy justified it.
Ulloa's conduct had provoked the measures to which the inhabi-
tants had resorted. During nearly two years, he had haunted
the province as a phantom of dubious authority. The efforts of
the colonists to prevent the transfer of their natal soil to a foreign
prince originated in their attachment to their own, and the Catholic
King ought to have beheld in their conduct a pledge of their fu-
ture devotion to himself. They had but lately seen their country
severed and a part of it added to the dominion of Great Britain ;
they had bewailed their separation from their friends and kindred ;
and were afterward to be alienated, without their consent, and
subjected to a foreign yoke. If the indiscretion of a few needed
an apology, the common misfortune afforded it.

Judge Martin is right: nothing can excuse O'Reilly's
cruelty. Spain was powerful enough to be generous, and
Charles III would have pardoned men whose only crime
was to have loved liberty and France, whence had come
Philip V and Vendome, the victor of Villaviciosa. There
is surely no nobler page in any history than that which is
presented to us by the " Martyrs of Louisiana."

228 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1771

Gayarre quotes in his History a letter of the Marquis
de Grimaldi, one of the ministers of Charles III, to the
Count de Fuentes, Spanish ambassador to France, by
which we see that O'Reilly went beyond his instructions
when he caused Lafreniere and his companions to be exe-
cuted. Grimaldi says:

The instruction that was given to him [O'Reilly] was, that
after taking in that port [Havana] the infantry battalions, the
ammunition, and the other things which he should judge necessary,
he should go to the colony, and that, after taking possession of
it in the name of His Majesty, he should institute proceedings
and punish, according to the laws, the chiefs of the insurrection,
by sending away from the colony all the persons and families
who might disturb its tranquillity. ... It appeared proper to
give M. O'Reilly such extensive instructions, on account of the
distance of the country. But as the King, whose character is
well known, is always inclined to gentleness and clemency, he
ordered that M. O'Reilly be informed that it would be agreeable
to the will of His Majesty that he should act with the greatest
mildness, and be contented with expelling from the colony those
who should deserve a greater punishment. 12

Petit, Jean Milhet, Poupet, Masan, Doucet, and
Hardy de Boisblanc, who had been condemned to im-
prisonment in Morro Castle, Havana, were liberated in
1771 by the intercession of the French government. The
son of Masan went to Madrid and begged the King to
pardon his father. The French ambassador joined his
entreaties to those of the devoted son, and all the prison-
ers were released from captivity. This act of clemency
proves that the King of Spain would not have consented

1778] THE EXILES 229

to the execution of five of the chiefs of the Revolution of
1768 had an appeal been made to him by O'Reilly. The
latter bears the sole responsibility for this cruel deed.

The prisoners of Morro Castle never returned to Loui-
siana, and are said to have retired to Santo Domingo, at
the Cap Francais. Baudry des Lozieres says that Jean
Milhet, on his arrival at Santo Domingo, sent for his
family, and that, on seeing his wife and three children,
his joy was so great that he died a week later. The un-
fortunate exiles from Louisiana suffered again during
the revolt of the negroes at Santo Domingo, and the wife
of Jean Milhet, says Baudry des Lozieres, died at Phila-
delphia. The widow of Lafreniere received from the
King of France ten thousand livres, part of which was
to be given to the widow of Xoyan, Lafreniere's son-in-
law.

The Chevalier Bienville de Noyan, enseigne de vais-
seau™ died in Santo Domingo in March, 1778, where he
had formed a partnership with the Baron de Breteuil.
As he had been one of the promoters of the Revolution of
1768, O'Reilly had confiscated his property. Villars, the
French commissioner in Louisiana, says that the Duke
de Duras, the Count de Vergennes, and the Baron de
Breteuil, as relatives, protectors, and friends of the Che-
valier de Noyan, endeavored to have the confiscation
raised, but made the mistake of pleading his innocence,
which could not be admitted without casting suspicion
on the justice of Count O'Reilly and on that of the King
who had ratified the conduct of his general. Now that
Noyan is dead, Villars adds that he will make a last at-

230 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [m &

tempt in favor of his widow and children, and Governor
Galvez will second with all his might the petition to the
minister of the Indies.

Thus ended the drama that began when Louis XV
ceded to Spain the colony of Louisiana, where were liv-
ing men of honor and of courage who refused to be trans-
ferred to a foreign sovereign. It is a sad and heroic
story, and one that should never be forgotten on the soil
where was shed the blood of Lafreniere, Noyan, Carresse,
Marquis, Joseph Milhet, and Villere.

CHAPTER XI

Old Papebs of Colonial Times

Interest of the papers of colonial times — Papers signed by Lafr^nierc and
Foucault— A lawsuit and a petition in 1769— Hunting cattle on the Gen-
tilly coast— Establishment of the cahildo — The governor and the com-
mandants—The alcaldes and the escribano— Case of the slave Hautista —
Military life in 1795— Petition from a lady in 1768— Louison, the Indian,
freed from slavery— Contract with the Acadians— Father Dagobert's in-
duction into office— A petition from the inhabitants of Cabaha-noce— Suit
against the memory of a supposed self-homicide— Petition in 1769 about
a "carriage" (a pirogue).

MONG the archives of the Louisiana
Historical Society are several wooden
boxes containing judicial papers of
colonial times. The Louisianians of
the eighteenth century appear to
have been truly religious and hon-
orable, but some of their ideas were
peculiar, and their language, as seen in their judicial pa-
pers, is somewhat naive and bombastic. The bombastic
style, however, in the eighteenth century, was not re-
stricted to Louisiana. We see it but too often in the writ-
ings of French authors, especially those of the minor
dramatists who had forgotten the beautiful language of
the seventeenth century. They seem to speak to poster-
ity, and they use the longest words to express what they
consider to be deep philosophy. Fortunately, says M.

231

232 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA ["«»

Petit de Julleville, the eminent French critic, the writers
of the eighteenth century have kept the secret of their
style and have not transmitted it to us. It is, never-
theless, interesting to make a study of that style as
exemplified in the Louisiana documents, and to try to
understand what was the condition of things in colonial
days.

The papers contained in the box marked 1768 and 1769
are of special interest, as they bear the signature of La-
freniere as attorney-general. In October, 1768, the colo-
nists expelled Ulloa, the Spanish governor, and it is in-
teresting to read petitions addressed to that Superior
Council which had the boldness and the patriotism to
issue the decree of expulsion. A few months later
O'Reilly arrived, and on October 25, 1769, Lafreniere
and four of his heroic friends were executed, while others
were sent to prison. The insurrection against the Spanish
governor was general, as the petition sent to the Superior
Council asking that Ulloa either show his credentials or
depart was signed by five hundred and sixty respectable
inhabitants. Foucault, the commissaire ordonnateur, was
one of the instigators of the Revolution of 1768 ; but as he
was an officer of the King of France, he held himself ac-
countable only to the latter for his conduct, and he was
sent back to France. He was first judge of the Council,
and his name and that of Lafreniere are to be seen on
almost all the French papers for several years.

Among these papers is an account of a lawsuit, which
gives a good idea of judicial proceedings and of the style
of petitions in April, 1769. Alexandre Reboul, mer-

1769] COLONIAL PAPERS 233

chant, to " Nos Seigneurs " of the Superior Council of
the Province of Louisiana, says, in substance, that as the
Sieur Voisin was very ill, his family thought it advisable
to send him to town to be treated, and he stayed at the
Sieur Heboid's house, where he died. The plaintiff claims
compensation for expenses incurred by having at his
house three persons, — that is to say, the widow and the
children, besides three slaves. He says they remained
more than a month during the illness of the Sieur Voisin,
and about fifteen days after his death. Plaintiff declares
that the widow Voisin wishes to deprive him of his rights,
but that he owes it to his minor children to insist upon
his privileges, and he claims seven hundred and fifty
livres. The petition is dated April 22, 1769, and on
April 29 De Lalande, probably acting in Foucault's ab-
sence, orders the case to be brought before the Superior
Council. Edme Tranchant Dupuy, " huissier," certifies
that he has notified all parties interested to appear before
the Council. The answer of the widow Voisin, through
her lawyer, the Sieur Billoard Ch. Dessales, is very
curious :

To the demand little civil of the Sieur Reboul: Never have
arguments been more painful to present than those which the
defendant offers to-day for Madame Voisin ; obliged to do so,
however, he has consulted the said lady, who found herself in
consternation and overwhelmed with the greatest resentment and
the greatest grief. She has the misfortune to see the children
of the late Sieur Voisin embittered against her on account of her
renunciation of the marriage community, which she has done for
the sole purpose of providing a piece of bread for her poor chil-
dren, who are minors and of tender age. What would the children

234 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [n 69

of the late M. Voisin require,* — or rather what should they re-
quire, they who are provided for, who have means, who enjoy
the comforts of a quiet life? Did they wish that she should
abandon to them her own property, to her detriment and that
of her own children ? Could she do so ? And if she had done so,
would not her conscience have been alarmed, even lacerated? On
the contrary, she threw herself at the feet of the tribunal to im-
plore its justice and be put in possession of the property she had
before she married the Sieur Voisin, and in that way to protect
her children from indigence.

Ought the Sieur Reboul to use this means to bring the suit,
ill-mannered and most common, which he brings to-day? If it
costs the widow Voisin tears, sighs, and sobs, she will render justice
to the Sieur Reboul, to whom it must have cost much also to
make this demand. Brought up in the house of the King, in
the most distinguished and high sentiments, and to fall at once
to institute such vile suits, if nature does not suffer, at least pride
does. The silence he has kept thus far is the proof of this. In-
deed, forgetting all discretion and forgetting himself, he asks
750 livres for the board of four persons and three servants. Ma-
dame Voisin is far from being unwilling to indemnify the Sieur
Reboul for the extraordinary expenses he may have incurred. She
is, however, compelled to say that she remained at the Sieur
Reboul's only fifteen days, and her daughter Tonton fifteen days,
and Marie Voisin was at her aunt's ; she never had three servants
at one time; she had only one negress at a time, who went back
to the plantation to rest when she was tired, and the servants
brought their food with them from the plantation.

The expense for twenty-three days for one person can never
amount to 750 livres, especially when one has contributed to that
expense? Shall this fact be proved? We are compelled to do
so, not to be accused of ingratitude. In the time that the
Sieur Voisin was ill at the house of the Sieur Reboul, there were
brought from the plantation of the widow three sheep, ten tur-
keys, twenty chickens, two barrels of rice, one barrel of potatoes,

1769] COLONIAL PAPERS 235

and every week four pounds of butter and a quantity of vege-
tables, as well as eggs, four pounds of candles, and twenty loaves
of long bread. Sball we say, besides, that very often the boarders
wrote tickets for bread, but the Sieur Reboul, through generosity,
tore them up and would not allow sending to the baker's? Shall
we say that money was given to buy meat, but Madame Reboul
took it away from the servants and would not allow it? What
more shall we say? We know not how to defend ourselves; that
unexpected attack calls for silence, and only leaves a moment to
beg the Court to consider the statement hereto attached, and to
order what shall appear proper, so very indignant is Madame
Voisin at seeing in the plaintiff such feelings, unworthy a former
officer in the guards of the King, but such as usually cause law-
suits, in which fortunes are cither increased or diminished.

The plea of the procureur Dessales, signed May 6,
1769, although somewhat bombastic, is ingenious and
caustic. We shall pass to another petition.

The tradition in New Orleans is, that the name Gen-
tilly is a corruption of Chantilly, the historical palace of
the Montmorencys and of the Condes, which has been
bequeathed by the Duke dAumale to the Institute of
France. One of these papers appears to prove that Gen-
tilly is a family name, or rather the name of a landed es-
tate which belonged to one of the best-known and oldest
Louisiana families.

To " Nos Seigneurs " of the Superior Council of the Province
of Louisiana: The inhabitants of the coast of Gentilly have the
honor to represent that a certain Braziller, living on Bayou St.
John, has for several years taken the liberty of going on the Gen-
tilly grounds to kill cattle which he pretended to believe were
wild. A few years ago, by his own authority, he is said to have

236 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [n*

left some cattle at a place above Gentilly, called Chef Menteur,
which cattle he left for some time on this continent, and then
he had them exported to the other side of the lake, and pretended
that some have remained on the place, since he does not cease with
his negroes to hunt cattle and kill any that he chances to meet
and carry them across the lake. It is well to call your attention
to the fact that the greater part of the cattle of the planters of
the Gentilly coast are and have been at all times on this continent.

The petition declares further that Braziller has just
killed two oxen, which he claims as his, and when M.
Dreux's negro asked him to show him the skins and heads,
to see the marks, he said he had no accounts to render, and
that his negroes had eaten and burned the heads, using
insulting and threatening words in reply. The planters
notified him not to hunt cattle any more on their conti-
nent, but he paid no attention to them, and continued
as in the past, and a great many cattle are missing, es-
pecially from M. Dreux pfre, who ought to have seven
to eight hundred cattle, and finds that he has fewer than
eighty. The petitioners ask if any one has ever heard
of a planter or any other individual hunting the cattle
of the planters and laying his hands upon them without
notifying the planters of the neighborhood. They say
that Braziller sells as meat of wild oxen what is really
meat of French oxen ; and that there is nothing more im-
pertinent than this man, who threatens to shoot M.
Dreux's cattle-keeper. The petitioners, therefore, pray
that Braziller and his negroes be forbidden to hunt cattle
or any other game on the Gentilly coast; and that he be
condemned to pay a fine to the benefit of the Charity

1769] COLONIAL PAPERS 237

Hospital. Signed, January 14, 1769, by Fazende, S.
Bernoudy, Bernoudy, Dreux, Dreux fils, Dreux Gen-
tilly, and by Lafreniere as attorney-general.

The words " continent," used for the Gentilly coast,
and " French oxen " are curious. The latter expression
meant undoubtedly oxen belonging to some one, and not
wild. The signature " Dreux Gentilly " indicates that
the Gentilly coast was named for some landed estate
of the Dreux family to which belonged the distinguished
Creole orator and Confederate officer, Charles D. Dreux.

The Superior Council, to which were addressed the
petitions just mentioned, went out of existence when
O'Reilly took possession of the colony in the name of the
King of Spain. A cabildo was substituted for the Coun-
cil, says Judge Martin in his History of Louisiana. This
was composed of six perpetual regidors, two ordinary
alcaldes, an attorney-general, a syndic, and a clerk. The
ordinary alcaldes were judges in New Orleans, and de-
cided without appeal all cases where the value of the
object in dispute did not exceed 90,000 maravedis, or
$330.88. Beyond this amount, an appeal lay to the ca-
bildo; but, says Judge Martin, " this body did not itself
examine the judgment appealed from, but chose two re-
gidors, who, with the alcalde who had rendered it, re-
viewed the proceedings, and if he and either of the regi-
dors approved the decision, it was affirmed."

The governor's authority was very great, and he had
both executive and judicial power, and to some extent
legislative power also. In his judicial capacity he had
as counselor the auditor or assessor. The latter person

238 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [1795

sometimes had the titles of assessor, auditor, and lieuten-
ant-governor, as in the case of Nicolas Maria Vidal dur-
ing Carondelet's administration. In the parishes outside
of New Orleans there was a commandant who had juris-
diction in civil cases involving not more than twenty dol-
lars. Beyond that amount, the commandant took down
the testimony and sent the papers to the governor. He
likewise sent to the governor a transcript of the evidence
in criminal cases, and had no authority to judge the ac-
cused. He was empowered, however, to arrest and im-
prison him until the governor gave the decision. The
commandant was a very important personage in a parish,
and had a number of duties to perform.

From what precedes, we see that justice was admin-
istered in the city by the two ordinary alcaldes and by
the governor, and in the parishes, to a limited extent, by
the commandant. Two other important officials were the
" escribano publico," or clerk of the cabildo, and the
translator. From 1788 to the end of the Spanish domi-
nation the " escribano " was Pedro Pedesclaux, whose sig-
nature is attached to numerous documents.

In 1795 the governor was Don Francisco Luis Hector,
Baron de Carondelet, whose administration was marked
by internal improvements, and was judicious and wise.

The times of slavery are remote and past forever, and
no one regrets them; but as slavery was for many years
an institution in Louisiana, it is interesting to see what
were the rights of the slave and how he was treated by
the courts of justice.

Bautista, a slave of the estate of Widow Reine, de-

1795] COLONIAL PAPERS 239

clares that by the will of his mistress he was valued at
$350, as she said that he should become the slave of her
son Estevan, provided the latter paid to the estate the
sum stipulated in the will. Bautista says he has found
some one willing to give him the $350 required, and he
begs that the administrator of the estate should grant him
his freedom on his paying that amount. The alcalde,
Don Ignacio Josef de Lovia, summons the negro Bau-
tista and the executor or administrator of the estate to
appear before him, and Pedesclaux, the escribano, cer-
tifies to his having notified both. " Doy fee " is the ex-
pression he uses. Don Francisco Cousin, the executor,
asks that the testament be produced in court, and the al-
calde grants the request. This testament, like many others
of the time of the Spanish domination, begins with a most
fervent prayer. The assertion of the negro that his mis-
tress wished to sell him to her son for $350 is borne out
by the will. The executor, however, denies that this
is the value of the slave, and asks that appraisers be ap-
pointed to ascertain his value. Both parties are duly no-
tified, and Bautista chooses Don Bernardo Tremoulet,
and the executor Don Geronimo Lachiapella. The ap-
praisers are sworn, and Lachiapella values the slave at
$1100, as being an excellent carpenter, and Tremoulet
says that he is worth $600, because he works only as di-
rected by others. The appraisers not agreeing, the al-
calde names Don Roberto Jones, master carpenter, as
umpire. This decision is communicated to the executor
of the estate and to the slave, and the umpire, being sworn,
declares, like Don Bernardo Tremoulet, that Bautista

240 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA 11795

is not an excellent workman, and he values him at $800.
The court accepts the appraisement of the umpire as
final, and orders that the parties concerned be informed
of the decision. The executor replies that, should the said
slave be unable to pay the $800 stipulated, he (the ex-
ecutor) begs to be authorized to sell him for the account
of the estate. The case ends with the statement of Bau-
tista that he cannot pay $800.

The slave is certainly to be pitied that he did not suc-
ceed in obtaining his freedom, but throughout the whole
proceeding we observe the equity and impartiality of the
court. The slave being a property guaranteed by law,
the executor of the estate did his duty in trying to ob-
tain as high a price for him as possible, and the court
could not do otherwise than require Bautista to pay the
amount of the valuation.

Don Francisco Luis Hector, Baron de Carondelet,
Knight of the Order of St. John, Brigadier of the Royal
Armies, Governor-General and Royal Vice-Patron of
the Province of Louisiana and of West Florida, and In-
spector of the Veteran Troops and of the Militia, said,
in substance, that on June 3 Martin Villanueva, Captain
of the Seventh Company of the First Battalion of the
Regiment of Infantry, who was on guard with his colonel,
informed the governor that he had taken to prison a
civilian named Fare, whom he had met quarreling with a
soldier of the Regiment of Mexico. He arrested the lat-
ter also, and sent him to his quarters, and took away from
Fare a knife, which he brought to the governor. A sol-
dier named Amort was witness of the facts. The gov-

n95] COLONIAL PAPERS 241

ernor, therefore ordered the escribano, Pedesclaux, to as-
certain the quality and dimensions of the knife, and to
summon as experts the master armorer, Pedro Lambert,
and the blacksmith, Marcelino Hernandez, who should
testify under oath whether the knife was one of those
prohibited by the royal edicts. Captain Villanueva, the
soldier Amort, and the soldier of the Regiment of Mexico,
were also to appear as witnesses in the case, of which the
lieutenant-governor, Nicolas Maria Vidal, was to be the
judge. The escribano proceeded to measure the knife,
of which he gave a curious and exact drawing, and of
which the dimensions were: blade, seven inches and three
lines, with a point ; wooden handle, four inches and three
lines, and attached to the blade by three nails. The ex-
perts, Lambert and Hernandez, testified under oath —
the first through the interpreter, Estevan de Quinones,
the second directly — that the knife was one of which the
use was forbidden in the colony. Captain Villanueva tes-
tified that, being on duty in the evening at the house of
his colonel, Don Francisco Bouligny, he heard the sen-
tinel calling, and on going out to see what it was, he per-
ceived a civilian holding a knife in his hand and pursuing
a soldier of the Regiment of Mexico. He took the knife
from the civilian, and carried it to the governor. Being-
asked if he knew the civilian, he said he was a baker at
whose shop the soldiers often bought bread. He added
that the man was very drunk ("muy borracho"), as
on entering the guard-house he lay down on an old
sofa that was there. Being asked if the baker and the
soldier of Mexico were wounded, he replied that they

242 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ms

were not, but that the latter bore traces of blows on his
face.

The testimony of the soldier of the Regiment of Mex-
ico is quite curious and interesting. He relates that, as
the baker was on friendly terms with the soldiers of the
regiment, in which were some men called John (Juan),
the latter ordered a pie from the baker, and invited him
to come and celebrate their feast with them. The baker
went, and on leaving the quarters of the soldiers he saw
that it was raining very hard. He asked the witness to
lend him a coat, and the latter borrowed that of his ser-
geant, who ordered him to accompany the baker to his
house, so that he might bring back the coat. On arriving
at the baker's house, the soldier was invited to come in,
and he found at the baker's several persons. They all
began to drink, and the baker, says the witness, became
completely drunk (" enteramente borracho "), and when
he was asked for the sergeant's coat, he and his friends
beat the soldier unmercifully. The latter, to defend him-
self, gave a kick at the baker, who seized a knife and
pursued him into the street. The knife was duly identi-
fied by all the witnesses and the testimony of every one
was very damaging to the enraged and drunken " pa-
nadero." The judgment of Lieutenant-Governor Vidal
is not recorded.

The Sieur Monsanto, a merchant, claiming a large
sum of money from a lady, the latter says that her
deceased husband compelled her, in 1763, to sign an act
by which he admitted a debt of 25,000 livres in paper
money of the colony, in exchange for 12,500 livres in

i77o] COLONIAL PAPERS 243

coin. She says that the livre in paper at that time was
worth only one fourth of a livre in coin, and that as the
creditor has already received 7500 livres in coin, an
amount equal to 30,000 livres in paper, she now (Octo-
ber 1, 1768) begs the Superior Council to release her
from her obligations, and adds that she has nothing but
her life and her tears, weak resources which all women
have. The decision of the Council is not given.

On April 30, 1770, the Sieur Pierre Clermont ap-
peared before the notary of the cabildo and declared that
he had had for a long time in his service an Indian named
Louison, of the nation of the " Sious." The latter has
served him with so much attachment and zeal that he de-
sires to reward him, and believes that the best way to do so
is to give him his freedom. As, however, he has an indis-
pensable need of the Indian for three years longer, and
he fears that he might be prevented by death from liber-
ating him, he declares it to be his wish that in three years
Louison be set free and enjoy all the rights of freedom.
Louison, in his turn, declares that he thanks the Sieur
Clermont, and promises to serve him faithfully three
years. He also says that he agrees to lose all rights given
to him by his master if he should prove ungrateful to
him.

The fact of an Indian of the Sioux tribe being a slave
in New Orleans in 1770 is strange, and the name of the
savage, Louison, is stranger still. It must have been very
humiliating to an Indian brave to change his own proud
name to that of a woman.

In a paper dater April 4, 1765, we see a contract be-

244 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nes

tween Antoine Bernard Dauterive, former captain of in-
fantry, and Joseph Broussard, dit Beausoleil, Alexandre
Broussard, Joseph Guilleheau, Jean Duga, Olivier Thi-
baudau, Jean-Baptiste Broussard, Pierre Arcenaud, and
Victor Broussard, chiefs of the Acadians. Captain Daute-
rive promises to furnish each Acadian family with five
cows with their calves, and one bull, for six consecutive
years, and he will take the risk of the loss of the cattle
only the first year. As soon as he shall be notified of a
loss he will immediately replace the animal by another
one of the same kind, without holding the Acadians re-
sponsible for losses by death during the first year. He
reserves the right to rescind the contract after three years,
and to take back his cattle, all increase being equally di-
vided between him and them. The Acadians may sell
some of the cattle before the expiration of the contract,
provided they give him half the price received. At the
end of six years they must give back to M. Dauterive the
same number of cattle that they received from him, and
of the same age and kind as those that had been received,
all increase and profits to be equally divided between M.
Dauterive and the Acadians. The chiefs of the latter bind
themselves and colleagues in solido, and mortgage all
their property, and so does M. Dauterive. The contract
is signed before Garic, notary, in the presence of Aubry,
acting governor of the colony; Foucault, ordonnateur;
Lafreniere, attorney-general, and Mazange and Cou-
turier.

It is not stated where the Acadians were to go after
leaving New Orleans; but some of their chiefs certainly

1765] COLONIAL PAPERS 245

went to the Attakapas country, for in.the church register
in St. Martinville is a certificate of the birth of a daugh-
ter of Olivier Thibaudau, Irani on May 10, 1765, proba-
bly the first child born in Louisiana of Acadian parents.
The contract proves that the Acadians were well received
in the province ; for in the agreement with M. Dauterive
all the advantages were on their side. For the first year
they were protected against loss of their cattle, and they
were to receive half the profits. As to the mortgage on
the property, they had far less to lose than M. Daute-
rive, who must have been wealthy, while they are repre-
sented as having come to Louisiana in great distress.

The contract between M. Dauterive and the chiefs of
the Acadians is important in that it proves that the help
given to the Acadians came from individuals as well
as from the government. The latter, however, seemed to
assume the responsibility of the agreement, as the paper
was signed by the first officials of the government. The
Acadians, doubtless, received their lands free from the
government.

Father Dagobert's name is so well known in Louisiana,
and is connected with so many legends and poems, that
it is interesting to reproduce the official account of his
taking possession of his pastoral office on October 7,
1764. Garic, royal notary of the province of Louisiana
and chief clerk of the Superior Council, certifies that
the Rev. Father Dagobert de Longory, former superior
of the Capuchin missionaries from Champagne, has pre-
sented a commission from the Rev. Father Hilaire de
Geneveaux, which gives to Father Dagobert possession,

246 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [itm

collation, and charge, as curate, of the parochial church
of St. Louis, in New Orleans, with all rights and priv-
ileges. The said commission given hy the Rev. Father
Hilaire de Geneveaux, as superior of the missions of
Louisiana, has been ordered registered by the Superior
Council and recognized; and, therefore, the clerk of
the Council went to the cathedral at eight o'clock in the
morning when the curate was to take possession of the
church. The persons present were Lafreniere, Duclos,
assistant attorney-general; Cantrelle and Jacquelin,
churchwardens; Dreux, Huchet de Kernion, Le Breton,
Aubry, and other notable inhabitants of the province.

The clerk read Father Dagobert's commission and the
decree of the Council, and then Father Eustache, former
curate, put his successor in possession of his office. The
ceremonies were : putting on the stole, taking holy water,
prayers before the principal altar, visiting the pulpit and
the baptismal fonts, ringing the bells, standing at the
place where the curate is to officiate at the altar, and other
formalities. Then the clerk proclaimed in a loud and in-
telligible voice that Father Dagobert had taken posses-
sion of his office, and, no one protesting, immediately
the Te Deum was sung and the act drawn up by Clerk
Garic was signed by all present.

In 1796 a petition was addressed to Governor Caronde-
let by the inhabitants of St. James parish, district of
Cabaha-noce. It appears that the parish priest, Father
de Azuquequa, having died, the court ordered the servant
of the parsonage to be sold and the price paid to Father
Mangan, successor to Father de Azuquequa. The in-

n96] COLONIAL PAPERS 247

habitants of the parish protest against the judgment, and
appeal to the governor. Their petition is interesting and
is better written than most documents of that time. It
is drawn up in French, in what seems to be the handwrit-
ing of Michel Cantrelle, commandant of the parish, and
then admirably translated into Spanish by Juan Josef
Duforest. The petitioners declare that it is well known
that since their arrival in this country they have built at
their own expense a church for divine service; that they
have kept it in as good condition as they could; that
they have always given good lodging to the priest; that
they have bought, with the consent of Bishop Cirilo, of
Barcelona, servants for the use of the priest and them-
selves. The slaves are to serve them during Lent and at
other times when, the distance being too great, they are
not able to return home without eating something. The
servants are also to provide them with water to drink on
Sundays. Why should they be deprived of that conve-
nience, which costs nothing to any one except to them ? It
is said to be against the regulations of the church, but they
are utterly ignorant of such regulations. They say they
ask for no favor, but simply claim justice, and request
that not a cent (denier) be taken from the estate of Fa-
ther de Azuquequa before their rights are determined.
" In short," they say, " in order to prove to the world that
we are not looking for quarrels or quibbles, we ask no
other judges but your Excellency and Monseigneur the
bishop, having full confidence in your equity and impar-
tiality. As vice-patron royal, we dare hope that you
will receive our demand favorably, which has no other

248 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ira6

.aim but to end an unpleasant suit that deprives us of the
tranquillity that has always reigned in this parish, and
prevents us from contributing as generously as we should
like to the care of the church. In order that you may be
informed perfectly of our reasons, we shall name, to ex-
plain them if you judge proper, two old inhabitants of
our parish, to whom will be added our commandant, Don
Miguel Cantrelle, who knows better than any one what
concerns our community." The petition is signed by many
persons whose descendants still live in St. James parish.

The name Cabaha-noce, which was said to mean " the
ducks' sleeping place," was given by Governor Roman to
his plantation, and should have been preserved in St.
James parish. We should at least respect the Indian
names, which remind us of the aborigines and their
legends.

Bienville, the founder of New Orleans, father of the
colony, asked to be relieved of his office of governor after
his unfortunate war with the Chickasaws, and returned
to France in 1743. His successor was the Marquis de
Vaudreuil, who was appointed Governor of Louisiana in
1741. In 1753 he was appointed Governor of Canada, and
left Louisiana, where he was known as the " Grand Mar-
quis." During his administration took place an event
that reveals a curious phase of the life of our ancestors
in the eighteenth century. It shows that, however pecu-
liar some of their ideas may appear to us, they were al-
ways actuated by feelings of honor and justice. On
April 18, 1752, Raguet, member of the Superior Coun-
cil, declares that he has made an " information," at the

17S2] COLONIAL PAPERS 249

request of the attorney-general, Fleuriau, plaintiff and
accuser of the memory of a soldier named Andre Servin-
ien, dit La Rochelle, accused of having destroyed himself
hy a gunshot in the head, said " information " heing of
his life and morals as well as of his suicide. Joseph
Odoy, soldier of the company of Benoist, swears that he
is neither a relative nor a servant of the accused, and
testifies that La Rochelle, a soldier of his company and
of his mess, killed himself with his gun yesterday morn-
ing, between eight and nine o'clock. Witness had gone
to the river to get some water, and on returning found
La Rochelle dead. One hour before this La Rochelle
had taken a knife, saying that he wished to destroy him-
self; and every day, as soon as he had taken a drink, he
became terribty angry, and in his great furies he even
threatened to kill his father, and his comrades had to pre-
vent him from killing himself. Witness was never on
intimate terms with him, on account of his violence and
bad temper, and it is possible that sometimes his mind
wandered (fut ecarte). Jean Louis Rabido, soldier of
the same company, testifies that La Rochelle had extraor-
dinary fits of anger and fury, taking a knife to cut his
stomach, and making blood flow, cursing and abusing
the name of God, acting in a way to make witness shud-
der, and saying he would never pardon his father. Wit-
ness believes that when La Rochelle had taken some
drinks his mind wandered. Pierre Filcher and Andre
Desjardins, soldiers, make the same statements as the
preceding witnesses. They believe that La Rochelle's
mind was alienated, and they say that, while at the can-

250 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [ira

teen, he went from table to table, taking the bottles and
drinking like a madman.

On April 19, 1752, the attorney-general appears before
Commissioner Raguet and declares that he has just
heard that the body of Andre Servinien, dit La Rochelle,
against whose memory and corpse he was prosecuting
this criminal suit, has been taken away from the cabin in
the King's Hospital, where it had been deposited. There-
upon, M. Raguet and the attorney-general went to the
hospital, questioned two students in medicine, Chastang
and Dupont, and also the two Ursuline nuns in charge
of the hospital, but could obtain no information concern-
ing the soldier's body. The nuns declared that they had
passed the night at their monastery, and only heard, be-
tween four and five o'clock, that the body had been taken
away; it must have been done during the great thunder-
storm in the night. On the same day, April 19, Raguet
says that as Servinien, " homicided," has no relatives in
this colony, he has named curator to his memory Pierre
Cecile, who, being duly notified, has accepted the office
and sworn to defend faithfully the memory of Servinien.
On April 20, the witnesses, Odoy, Rabido, Filcher, and
Desjardins, were brought before M. Raguet, and their
testimony, given on April 18, was read to them and duly
approved by them. On April 20, Pierre Cecile, curator,
appeared before the commissioner and was asked all
kinds of questions about Servinien, dit La Rochelle. He
related the facts already given by the witnesses, soldiers
in Servinien's company; and being asked if he had any-
thing to say in favor of the memory of Servinien, he

H69] COLONIAL PAPERS 251

replied that the latter had the mind of a madman, and
that there was more madness in him than despair.

On April 21, all the witnesses were again brought be-
fore the commissioner and examined by the curator, and
they all gave the same testimony as before. Here ended
the labors of the Commissioner Raguet, and the suit was
carried for judgment before the Superior Council itself,
presided over by the governor. On May 6 Curator Ce-
cile appeared before the Council, and he again narrated
the same facts, and offered the same defense as before
M. Raguet. Therefore the Council rendered the follow-
ing decision: Whereas, it appears that Andre Servinien,
dit La Rochelle, was not in his proper senses, and his
mind was alienated and attacked with fury: it is resolved
that his memory be discharged of the accusation brought
against it. Signed by Vaudreuil, governor; Michel, or-
donnateur; DAuberville, commissioner of marine; and
Raguet, De Lalande, Huchet de Kernion, Le Breton,
members of the Council.

In April, 1769, M. Sorel requested his friend, Dr.
Lebeau, to endeavor to find and return to him a pirogue
that was stolen from him. Dr. Lebeau found a pirogue
that agreed with the description given to him by M.
Sorel, and obtained from Foucault, ordonnateur and
first judge of the Council, an order that experts be
named to decide whether the pirogue was M. Sorel's
or not. The experts, after examining carefully the
pirogue, or " voiture," decided that it agreed with the
description given by M. Sorel, and Dr. Lebeau thought
he had obtained possession of his friend's property.

252 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA [nra

But the Sieur Saligny, from " la Cote des Allemands,"
intervened and claimed the pirogue as his. In his pe-
tition he speaks harshly of Dr. Lebeau, and claims not
only the pirogue, but damages and two days' pay for
three Germans who had come with him to identify his
property. Dr. Lebeau, replying to Saligny 's petition,
says that the experts have examined the pirogue, have
measured it, have found a hole made by a knot in the wood
and closed it by a plank, and now it is said the hole was
closed by a plug. " A plug is not nailed ; it is a cylindri-
cal body, whose base is about equal to the point, and the
piece of wood that closes the hole is three inches in diam-
eter and two inches in depth; therefore it is not a plug.
Is the Sieur Sorel in default for not having made a geo-
metrical plan of the object? One of my negroes testified
that in M. Sorel's pirogue there were one hundred pegs
to close small holes, and in the pirogue in dispute two
hundred. Now, that negro cannot count further than
twenty. The story of this pirogue is a strange incident,
for it would require all the pirogues in the universe to
find two so exactly alike as this one and M. Sorel's. Men
are all under the protection of the laws, but especially
honest people, whose labor is useful to society, and not
people whose occupation is to the detriment of society,
like these coast runners ('coureurs de cote'), who, un-
der pretext of bringing merchandise, carry disorder and
death to the plantations, by selling rum there. The police
of a country should not only see that there should be no
useless members of society, but also should remove the
vicious members. We must therefore know who are

1769] COLONIAL PAPERS 253

Saligny and his associates. Where do they come from?
How are they here? Are they not amphibious — some-
times Englishmen, sometimes Frenchmen? Does their
labor contribute to the welfare of humanity? The con-
stant thefts of pirogues are the work of coast runners,
deserters. If the want of complete proof always protects
them, there is nothing which they will not attempt to do.
Presumption of guilt should always be against persons
who have an illicit commerce and who labor to foment
vice.

Dr. Lebeau's petition is energetic and fearless, and
gives a good idea of the customs of the time. The word
vehicle or carriage (" voiture ") , used for pirogue, shows
that in 1769 our fathers lived on the banks of rivers and
bayous, and used their pirogues principally as means of
transportation.

NOTES

NOTES

CHAPTER I

1 Bancroft says: " It was supposed to be an island, and received
the name of Florida, from the day on which it was discovered, and
from the aspect of the forests, which were then brilliant with a pro-
fusion of blossoms, and gay with the fresh verdure of early spring."
(History of the United States, Vol. I, page 33.)

• W. B. Scaife, America, its Geographical History.
3 Peter J. Hamilton, Colonial Mobile.

* Monette's Valley of the Mississippi. Luis Hernandez de Biedma,
A Gentleman of Elvas, in collection of B. F. French.

CHAPTER II

1 Translation of B. F. French.

2 John Gilmary Shea's Hennepin's Description of Louisiana
(New York, 1880).

3 I follow Parkman's translation, and insert the words omitted by
him.

CHAPTER III

1 Margry, Origines franchises des Pays d'Outre-Mer, Vol. IV,
Introduction.

2 Alex. Jodoin et J. L. Vincent, Histoire de Longueil et de la
Famile de Longueil, page 82.

3 There is some uncertainty about the fate of Sauvole, brother of
Iberville and Bienville.

4 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, page 14.

Journal de la Navigation de Le Moyne d' Iberville (Decembre,
1698-3 Mai, 1699). Margry, Vol. IV.

957

258 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

8 Journal Historique de l'Etablissement des Francais a la Loui-
siane.

7 In Margry, Vol. V, page 312, this fort is called " Maurepas."
It was generally known by the name of " Biloxi," and later " Old
Biloxi."

8 13th, according to Iberville's journal; 14th, according to Cha-
teaumorant's report; and 11th, according to Journal Historique.

9 Journal in Margry, Vol. IV.

10 Margry, Vol. V, page S95.
"Margry, Vol. IV, page 190.

12 Le Page du Pratz, in his History of Louisiana, Vol. I, page 276,
gives another version. He says that when the English ship reached
the bend in the river they had no wind to turn around it, and having
tried to land, they were attacked by the Ouachas and Chaouchas Indi-
ans, who had been watching them. They turned back, whence the
name " Engbsh Turn."

13 Journal Historique, page 19-

14 The first settlement in the present State of Louisiana ; the fort
is called " Maurepas " by some historians. It was abandoned in
1705.

15 He was not a brother of Iberville and Bienville, as has been often
said.

16 According to the Journal Historique. Iberville, in his journal,
says January 10 and 16 leagues.

CHAPTER IV

1 Magne's Notes et Documents Historiques, Louisiana Historical
Society, page 103.

2 Jean Le Camp's child was " the first Creole " of the colony. With
regard to this fact, Mr. Peter J. Hamilton, author of Colonial Mo-
bile, says in his Beginning of French Settlement of the Missis-
sippi Valley, note to page 5 (Gulf States Historical Magazine,
1902): " His name was Jean Francois, and he was baptized by the
cure Huve, on the day of his birth, October 4, 1704. His father
was probably named Jean Le Camp. The family name Le Camp
can hardly be made out in the first church entry, but Prof. Alcee For-

NOTES 259

tier lately found at Paris, in a census report of two years later,
the name spelled Le Camp. The church entries show a Jean Le
Camp in 1709- The statement of Pickett that the first Creole was
the son of Jousset is incorrect. There is a curious entry in the
records of 1745, at the death of Robert Tallon, cabinet-maker, that
he was ' the first Creole of the colony.' This would indicate, per-
haps, that Jean Francois Le Camp had died before that, or that
Robert Tallon had been born before him, which may well be, as the
colon} 7 had existed even at Fort Louis two years before the church
records begin." Bienville and La Salle say in their census, " Jean Le
Camp has the first male child born in Louisiana." This is conclusive.

3 Notes et Documents, Louisiana Historical Society, page 11.

4 Francois Xavier Martin, History of Louisiana.

5 Crozat graciously named one of his ships La Louisiane, which
carried provisions and goods to the colony.

6 The letters patent were given at Fontainebleau and are dated
September 14, 1712. See French MSS., Mississippi Valley, in the
custody of the Louisiana Historical Society.

7 In Margry, Vol. V, page 350, we see a memorial, dated February
27, 1700, and addressed to Jerome Pontchartrain by Juchereau de
Saint-Denys, asking to be allowed to form a settlement at Mississippi.
On June -1, 1701, permission was granted the Sieur Juchereau, " lieu-
tenant-general of the jurisdiction of Montreal," to establish a tannery
at the Mississippi. Juchereau made his settlement at the "Ouabache"
(the Ohio), and on September 6, 1704, Bienville reported that he died
" last autumn." The Saint-Denys, or " St. Denis," mentioned so
often by Penicaut and other chroniclers is identified by Dr. Shea
(see Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, page 25) as Louis
Juchereau de Saint-Denys, who, according to Charlevoix and Peni-
caut, was the uncle of Iberville's wife. It was Saint-Denys, says
Penicaut, who commanded the fort on the Mississippi and received
orders to abandon it in 1705.

8 Monette, History of the Valley of the Mississippi.

8 In 1721 Fort Louis of Mobile was named Fort Conde, and the
fort at New Biloxi was named Fort Louis.

10 Henri Martin, Histoire de France.

11 The letters patent were issued at Paris in August, 1717. See
French MSS., Louisiana Historical Society.

260 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

12 Margry, Vol. V, page 290.

13 Journal Historique.

14 The intention of the Western Company had been at first to
establish the town to be called " Nouvelle Orleans " at Manchac, as
it would be convenient to communicate by Iberville River with Mobile.
If we were to believe Penicaut's statement (Margry, Vol. V, page
549), New Orleans was founded in 1717 and not in 1718. He says
that Bienville told Governor De l'Epinay that he had noticed a
very suitable place to form a settlement on the bank of the Missis-
sippi, and that De l'Epinay sent Bienville in the beginning of the
winter to build that new establishment. The Journal Historique,
however, is much more reliable than Penicaut's Relation, and its
statement about the foundation of New Orleans may be accepted as

correct.

15 It was in reality the Superior Council remodeled. It had been
created on December 18, 1712, for a period of three years, on the
plan of the Council of the other French colonies, and on September
17, 1716, it was made "perpetual and irrevocable." See French
MSS., Louisiana Historical Society.

16 On January 8, 1721, the Baleine arrived with eighty-eight girls
from the hospital of La Salpetriere in Paris. They were under the
direction of Sister Gertrude, and had all been brought up from child-
hood in the hospital. (Penicaut, in Margry, Vol. V, page 581.)

11 Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. I, page 195.

18 In a letter dated Fort Louis (Biloxi), March 9, 1722, Engineer
Pauger says his superior officer, Leblond de la Tour, ordered him
to go to New Orleans to trace the plan of a regular town. On
March 29, 1721, he found at New Orleans only a few huts (6a-
raques) among briers and trees, and he traced all streets fronting
on the river. In Dumont's Memoires Historiques de la Louisiane
there is a plan of New Orleans made by Leblond de la Tour and
Pauger. It was the latter who established the post at the Balize in
March, 1723. (Margry, Vol. V, page 657.)

19 Margry, Vol. V, page 553.

20 Charlevoix, Journal d'un Voyage dans l'Amerique Septentrionale,

Vol. VI.

21 One of the few Indian tribes still existing in Louisiana, at
Charenton, on Bayou Teche. They make beautiful baskets.

NOTES 261

" Le Page gives the narrative of Moncacht-ape, of the tribe of the
Yazoos, of his journey to the east as far as the ocean, and to the west
up the Missouri River as far as the mountains. The narrative of
Moncacht-ape is very interesting and is accepted as authentic.

CHAPTER V

1 The original of the edict, written on excellent parchment and
signed by the King, by the minister Phelypeaux (Maurepas), by
Fleuriau, Dodun, and Rossard, is to be found in the volume of French
MSS., Mississippi Valley, in the custody of the Louisiana Historical
Society.

1 The same regulations applied to the French islands.

CHAPTER VI

1 Dumont, Memoires Historiques sur la Louisiane, Vol. II. VV I"

5 " The toise is a measure of six feet, but it must be remembered
this French foot is 12.78933 English inches, and thus longer than our
own." (Hamilton's Colonial Mobile, page 70.)

s Dumont, Memoires Historiques.

4 Mother Tranchepain died on November 11, 1733, before the
nuns entered their convent. Sister Madeleine Hachard died on
August 9, 1760.

6 Gravier, Relation du Voyage des Ursulines.

6 The treaty between the Jesuits and the Company of the Indies
was signed on February 20, 1726, and approved by the King on
August 17, 1726. (See French MSS., Mississippi Valley, Louisiana
Historical Society.)

7 Extraits des Manuscrits d'un Anglais habitant la Louisiane de
1719 a 1753. Rev. C. M. Widman, S. J., and Dr. G. Devron, in
Comptes Rendus de l'Athenee Louisianais, 1899-

8 The name is written also Louboey.

J. F. H. Claiborne, Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and
State.

l>

262 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

CHAPTER VII ( »Vl* — I * c

l

1 Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. III.

2 Notes et Documents, Louisiana Historical Society, page 2.

3 The retrocession of the Province of Louisiana and of the coun-
try of the Illinois, made by the Company of the Indies, was ac-
cepted by the King on January 23, 1731. (Margry, Vol. V,
page 590.)

4 D'Artaguette, says Gayarre, was to obtain reinforcements from
the Cahokias and the Mitchigamias under Montcherval. Margry,
in his Documents sur la Louisiane, says the name of the com-
mander was Mont-Chervaux and not Montcherval.

6 Young D'Artaguette was a brother of the commissary who be-
came commandant, or lieutenant de rot, at Mobile. They were sons
of the old commissaire ordonnateur. (Hamilton's Colonial Mobile,
page 108.)

6 Notes et Documents, Louisiana Historical Society, page 260, and
Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. II, page 322.

7 Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. I.

8 The Governor of Canada had first sent the Baron de Longueil,
Major of Montreal, a nephew of Bienville, as commander of the
contingent sent by him; but Longueil had an attack of sciatica, and
Celoron took his place. (Margry 's Documents sur la Louisiane, Loui-
siana Historical Society.)

9 Margry's Documents, Louisiana Historical Society.

10 Margry's Documents sur la Louisiane, Louisiana Historical
Society.

11 Martin, History of Louisiana.

12 L. Dussieux, Le Canada sous la Domination Franeaise, page
123. F. X. Garneau, Histoire du Canada, page 202. Bossu, Nou-
veaux Voyages, Vol. I, page 212, says that we must distinguish M.
de Villiers, known as the Great Villiers, who went to avenge Ju-
monville's death, from the Chevalier de Villiers who was stationed
at Fort Chartres.

13 Bossu, Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes Occidentales.

14 We give Kerlerec's name with the acute accent as he signed it
himself.

15 The name is also spelled Beaudrot.

NOTES 263

CHAPTER VIII

1 Etienne- Francois, Duke de Choiseul, born 1719, died 1785. He
waa first known by the name of Count de Stainville. He should be
distinguished from his cousin, Cesar-Gabriel de Choiseul (1712-
1785), Duke de Praslin, known as Count de Choiseul until 1762.
The latter became minister of foreign affairs in 1761, and it was
he who signed the treaty of Paris in 1763. He is generally known as
Choiseul-Praslin, while the able minister of Louis XV is known as
Choiseul-Stainville.

2 George Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. IV.

ORIGINAL TEXT OF TREATY

S 9 b F e 1762.

LE ROI TRES CHRETIEN etant dans la ferme resolution de res-
serrer de plus en plus, et de perpetuer les liens de la tendre amitie qui
l'unissent au Roi Catholique son Cousin, se propose d'agir en conse-
quence en tout tems et a tous egards avec Sa Majeste Catholique dans
une parfaite uniformite de prineipes relativement a. la Gloire com-
mune de leur Maison, et a l'interet reciproque de leurs Monarchies.

Dans cette vue Sa Majeste tres Chretienne veritablement sensible
aux sacrifices que le Roi Catholique a bien voulu faire genereusement
pour concourir avec Elle au retabUssement de la paix, a desire de
lui donner a cette occasion une preuve du vif interet qu'elle prend
a sa satisfaction et aux avantages de sa Couronne.

Pour cet effet le Roi tres Chretien a autorise le Due de Choiseul
son Ministre a delivrer dans la forme la plus autentique au Marquis
de Grimaldi ambassadeur extraordinaire du Roi Catholique, un acte
par lequel Sa Majeste Tres Chretienne cede en toute propriete, pure-
ment et simplement, et sans aucune exception, a Sa Majeste Catho-
lique et a Ses Successeurs a perpetuite, tout le Pays eonnu sous le
nom de la Louisiane, ainsi que la Nouvelle Orleans et l'lsle dans la-
quelle cette ville est situee.

Mais le Marquis de Grimaldi n'etant pas assez exactement in-
formed des intentions de Sa Majeste Catholique, a cru ne devoir ac-
cepter la dite cession, que conditionellement et sub spe rati, en at-
tendant les ordres qu'il recevra du Roi son maitre, lesquels, s'ils sont
conformes aux desirs de Sa Majeste Tres Chretienne, comme elle
l'espere, seront immediatement suivis de l'acte formel et autentique

264 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

de la cession dont il s'agit, dans lequel seront stipulees les mesures
a prendre et l'epoque a fixer d'un commim accord, tant pour l'evacu-
ation de la Louisiane et de la Nouvelle Orleans par les sujets de
Sa Majeste Tres Chretienne, que pour la prise de possession des dits
pays et ville par les sujets de Sa Majeste Catholique.

En temoignage de quoi nous Ministres respectifs avons signe le
present acte preliminaire et y avons fait apposer le cachet de nos
armes.

Fait a Fontainebleau le trois Novembre mille sept cent soixante
deux.

(L. S.) Le Due De Choiseul (L. S.) el marq s de Grimaldi.

ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE TREATY OF ACCEPTANCE

Don Carlos, por la gracia de Dios, Rey de Castilla, de Leon, de Ara-
gon, de las dos Sicilias, de Jerusalem, de Navarra, de Granada, de
Toledo, de Valencia, de Galicia, de Mallorca, de Sevilla, de Cerdena,
de Cordova, de Corcega, de Murcia, de Jaen, de los Algarves, de
Algecira, de Gibraltar, de las islas de Canaria, de las Indias Orien-
tales, y Occidentales, Islas, y tierrafirme del Mar Oceano; Archi-
duque de Austria; Duque de Borgona, de Brabante, y de Milan;
Conde de Absburg, de Flandes, del Firol, y de Barcelona; Sefior de
Vizcaya y de Molina, &c, Sor quanto aviendo llegado el caso de fir-
marse el dia tres del presente mes los Preliminares de una Paz
entre la Corona de Espana y la de Francia de une parte, la de
Inglaterra y Portugal de otra, ha tenido a bien el Rey Christianisimo
mi mui caro y mui amado Primo, por puro efecto de la nobleza de
su Corazon y del amor y amistad en que vivimos, disponer que el
Marques de Grimaldi mi Embassador Extraordinario cerca de su
R 1 . persona, y el Duque de Choiseul su Ministro de Estado, firmasen
en el mismo dia un acto por el qual cede desde luego la Corona de
Francia a. la de Espana el Pais conocido bajo el nombre de la
Luisiana, la nueva Orleans, y la Isla en que esta Villa halla situada,
y en el qual el citado mi Embassador admite la cesion tan solo sub
spe rati, por no hallarse con ordenes mias, que deviesen determinar —
le a egecutar lo absolutamente el tenor de cuyo acto es el siguiente.
(Here follows the treaty of Fontainebleau — French text.)

Por tanto, mirando yo a que efectuada esta generosa accion del
Rey Christianisimo sirva para que se arraigue entre las dos Naciones
Espaiiola y Francesa el espiritu de union y amistad que las conviene

NOTES 265

a exemplo del que anima a sus actuales soveranos, me compluzco de
acceptar ademas los que se juzgasen necesarios para Ucvarla a su
entero formal efecto, y autorizando para que los trate, concluya y firme
al mencionado Marques de Grimaldi. En fe de lo qual he mandado
despaehar la presente firinada de mi mano, sellada con mi sello se-
ereto, y refrendada de mi infraserito Consexcro de Estado y primer
Secretario del Despacho de Estudo y Guerra. En San Lorenzo el
R! a treze de Noviembre de mil setecientos sesenta y dos.
(Seal) Yo el Rey.

Ricardo Watt.

* Notes et Documents, page 467.

5 Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. II.

• Lettre du Roy a M. d'Abbadie, command', a la Louisiane pour
qu'il fasse entre les mains du Commissaire que le Roy d'Esp e . nom-
mera remise du dit pays ainsi que de la Nouvelle Orleans et de
l'isle dans laquelle cette Ville est situee, conformement a l'acte de
cession passe a fontainebleau le 3 9 b . re 1762, et accepte par un
autre acte signe par sa M. C. le 17 du meme mois dont les copies
sont cy jointes.

Mons. Dabbadie par un acte particulier passe a fontainebleau le
3. 9 br - e 1762, ayant cede de ma pleine Volonte a Mon tres Cher et
tres Ame Cousin le Roy d'Espagne et a Ses Successeurs et Heritiers,
en toute propriete purement et simplement et sans aucune Excep-
tion tout le Pays connu sous le Nom de la Louisiane, ainsi que la
Nouvelle Orleans et L'isle dans laquelle cette ville est situee et par
un autre acte passe a l'Escurial, Signe du Roy d'Espagne, le 13. 9 hT - e
de la meme annee, sa Majeste Catholique ayant accepte la Cession
dudit Pays de la Louisiane et de la Ville et Isle de la Nouvelle
Orleans, conformement a la Copie des dits actes que vous trouverez
cyjoints, je Vous fais cette Lettre pour vous dire que Mon Intention
est qu'a la reception de la presente et des Copies cyjointes, soit
qu'elle vous parvienne par les Officiers de Sa Majeste Catholique,
ou en droiture, par les batiments francois qui en seront Charges,
Vous ayiez a remettre entre les Mains du Gouverneur, ou Officier a
ce prepose par le Roy d'Espagne, ledit Pays et Colonie de la
Louisiane et postes en deppendants, ensemble les Ville et Isle de la
Nouvelle Orleans, Telles qu'elles se trouveront an jour de ladite Ces-
sion, voulant qu'a l'avenir elles appartiennent a Sa Majesty Catholique,

266 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

pour Etre Gouvernees et adniinistrees par Ses Gouverneur et Officiers
Comme luy appartenant En toute propriete et Sans aucune Excep-
tion, je Vous ordonne En consequence, qu'aussitot que le Gouverneur
et les Troupes de Sa Majeste Catholique Seront arrives dans lesdits
pays et Colonies, vous ayez a les mettre en possession et en retirer
tous les officiers, Soldats et Employes, appartenants a mon service qui
y Seroient encore en garnison, pour envoyer en france, ou dans mes
autres Colonies d'Amerique ceux qui ne jugeroient pas a propos de
rester sous la domination Espagnole. je desire de plus qu'apres
l'Entiere Evacuation desdits Postes et Ville de la Nouvelle Orleans,
vous ayez a rassembler tous les papiers et documents relatifs aux
finances et a l'administration de la Colonie de la Louisiane, pour
Venir en France en regler les Comptes, mon Intention est neantmoins
que Vous remetties audit Gouverneur, ou officier a ce prepose, tous
les papiers et documents qui Concerneront Specialement le Gou-
vernement de cette Colonie, soit par rapport au Territoire et a ses
Limites, soit par rapport aux Sauvages et aux differents Postes,
apres en avoir tire les receus convenables pour votre decharge et
que vous donnies audit Gouverneur tous les renseignements qui
dependront de vous, pour le Mettre en Etat de Gouverneur ladite
Colonie a la Satisfaction de Sa Majeste Catholique. et afin que lad.
Cession Soit faite a la Satisfaction reciproque des deux Nations ma
Volonte est qu'il soit dresse un Inventaire signe double entre Vous
et le Commissaire de Sa Majeste Catholique, de toute l'Artillerie,
Armes, Munitions, Effets, Magazins, Hopitaux Batiments de Mer
&c Qui m'appartiennent dans lad. Colonie, afin qu'apres avoir mis
led. Commissaire Espagnol en possession des Batiments et Edifices
Civils, il soit dresse ensuite un proces verbal d'Estimation de tous
lesdits Effets qui resteront sur les Lieux et dont le prix sera rem-
bourse par Sa Majeste Catholique sur le pied de lad. Estimation,
j'espere en meme terns pour l'avantage et la tranquility des habitants
de la Colonie de la Louisiane et je me promets en Consequence de
1'amitie et affection de Sa Majeste Catholique quelle voudra bien
donner des ordres a son Gouverneur et a tous autres officiers Em-
ployes a Son Service dans lad. Colonie et Ville de la Nouvelle
Orleans pour que les Ecclesiastiques et Maisons religieuses qui deser-
vent les Cures et les Missions y continuent leurs fonctions et y jou-

NOTES 267

isscnt des droits, privileges et Exemptions qui leur ont ete attri-
butes par les titres de leurs Etablissements: que les Juges ordinaires
continuent, ainsi que le Conseil Superieur, a rendrc la justice, sui-
vant les Loix, formes et usages de la Colonic: Que les habitants y
soient gardes et maintenus dans leurs possessions: qu'ils soient Con-
firmed dans les proprietes de leurs biens, suivant les Concessions (jui
en ont ete faites par les Gouverneurs et ordonnateurs de la Colonic
et que les d'f Concessions soient Censees et reputees Confirmees
par Sa Majeste Catholique quoiqu'elles ne l'eussent pas encore Ete
par Moy, Esperant au Surplus que Sa Majeste voudra bien donner
a Ses Nouveaux Sujets de la Louisiane les memes Marques de pro-
tection et de bienveillance qu'ils ont Eprouve sous ma Domination
et dont les Seuls malheurs de la Guerre les ont Empeche de ressentir
de plus grands effets, je vous ordonne de faire enregistrer ma pre-
sente Lettre au Conseil Superieur de la Nouvelle Orleans afin que
les differents etats de la Colonie Soient Informes de Son Contenu et
qu'ils puissent y avoir recours au besoin. Et la presente N'Etant
a autres fins, je prie Dieu, Mons Dabbadie qu'il vous ait en Sa Sainte
Garde. Ecrit a Versailles le 21 Avril 1764. Louis.

Le Due De Choiseul.

7 St. Louis was really founded in 1764 by Laclede and Chouteau.
See Vol. II, Chap. xii.

8 Notes et Documents, page 823.

9 Margry's Documents sur la Louisiane.

10 Fortier's Louisiana Studies, page 156.

11 Notes et Documents, page 468.

12 Colonial Archives, Paris. Copied by the writer.

13 Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. II, page 165.

14 Colonial Archives, Paris. Copied by the writer.

15 Notes et Documents, page 701.

16 Notes et Documents, page 709.

17 Notes et Documents, page 643.

18 Notes et Documents, page 611.

10 Notes et Documents, pages 617 to 643 and 668 to 671.

20 Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. II, page 230.

21 Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire Universel.

22 Nine hundred men, according to Aubry.

268 A HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

CHAPTER IX

1 Notes et Documents, Louisiana Historical Society, page 674.

2 For original text of both treaties, see notes to Chapter VIII.

3 Notes et Documents, page 938.

CHAPTER X

i

1 Aubry 's statement in his letter of August 24, 1769. Martin, in
his History of Louisiana, gives twenty-eight transports and forty-
five hundred men.

2 Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. II.
8 Notes et Documents, page 715.

4 Martin says that only four of the insurgents were arrested at
O'Reilly's house; but Aubry, in his letter of September 1, 1769, says
that all the insurgents were arrested by the general in his own house.

5 French, Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, Series VI.

6 Notes et Documents, page 730.

7 Notes et Documents, page 724. Aubry 's letter of September 1,
1769.

8 Notes et Documents, page 751.

9 Notes et Documents, page 802.

10 The following extract from the archives of the Ursuline Con-
vent was furnished Mr. Henry Renshaw and published by him in
Publications Louisiana Historical Society, 1901 :

" The sieurs Nicolas Chauvin de Lafreniere, Jean Baptiste Noyan,
Pierre Carresse, Pierre Marquis and Joseph Milhet, condemned to
death by O'Reilly, as chiefs of the revolt against Spain, at the time
of the cession of Louisiana, were shot, on October 25, 1769, in the
yard of the barracks, lot adjoining that of the Convent of the Ursu-
lines. It was a terrible moment of anguish for the nuns. The
report of fire-arms caused the windows of the Chapel to shake,
where had taken refuge the relatives of the victims, with whom the
nuns prayed."

11 Notes et Documents, page 805.

12 Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. II.

13 Notes et Documents, page 459. Letter of Villars, French com-
missioner, August 20, 1778.

gs

Cm

■H
ri

in

OH

a

•r*
■f*

hi

H
o

>

2
o
•-5

'<■<
a

U

Ci

University of Toronto
Library

DO NOT

REMOVE

THE

CARD

FROM

THIS

POCKET

Acme Library Card Pocket
t Pat. "Rof. Index File"
Made by LIBRARY BUREAU

'illiiiil'Pf

IBN
HMf

I t!: ! |i!:ii! !!